Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My statement is more a question than a rambling discourse. I am interested in knowing what procedure will be used to fill the vacancy at the very important Office of the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner once the incumbent, Ms Emily O'Reilly, takes up her job in Europe. I want to put on record my admiration for the work she has done. It is an enormous tribute to her abilities and reputation that she succeeded in being elected to the position of European Ombudsman and I wish her every success in that role. If she brings to it the qualities that she brought to her domestic position every citizen of Europe will benefit.

We are lucky that since the Irish Government in the early 1980s put in place the Office of the Ombudsman - if I recall correctly the first holder of the position was Michael Mills - we have been very well served and countless thousands of citizens, sometimes in a very quiet way, have benefited from the investigations put in place time after time by the Ombudsman. It is fair to say that sometimes the Office of the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner seems just like another Department but all of us as politicians would have used the office and it is very reassuring to hear from people that, not only do they always get very detailed correspondence from the office, but occasionally they get a telephone call from a very senior official of that office and sometimes from the Ombudsman him or herself. It is a great interaction between an office of State and the citizen which is very reassuring.

In conclusion, I wish Ms O'Reilly well in her new and very significant posting but I want to know what process or procedure or application must be entered into to replace her. I recall that previously the appointment was made on the recommendation of the Minister for Finance to the Government. Are there now public appointments or is there a panel or some sort of application form on the back of one's local newspaper? The Minister of State might advise me on this. We look forward to matters progressing and the next person, man or woman, doing the same effective job on behalf of every citizen of the State as Ms O'Reilly and her predecessors did.