Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. Hats off to the Minister. He saw what was happening and acted immediately in September. I admire him for that greatly.

It is regrettable that we do not have a single Act that governs appointments to State boards. I agree with Senator Landy that being politically active should not debar someone from serving on a State board. Unfortunately, it always will be the case that the Government of the time will have the best knowledge of the people from their own parties. I have no difficulty with that.

New arrangements for appointments of State board members were introduced by the Government in May 2011. The Minister was responsible for this. Under that process, Departments were to invite expressions of interest. Unfortunately, this process was not followed. I am not referring just to the situation that led to my election, but to a number of cases. Those who expressed interest and were deemed qualified were asked to appear before a committee of the Oireachtas for interview and to demonstrate how they could contribute to the board the relevant expertise, etc. I agree with Senator Whelan. Where the Oireachtas committee would have difficulty appointing a person who presented before it, there is no facility for the board to ask that the person not be appointed. This point feeds into Senator Quinn's position. Just as a board could reject a nominee, why would anyone in a public position want to put himself or herself forward and risk being rejected by the Oireachtas committee? We have not quite got the mix right. We want to attract the best and brightest, but I am not sure we have found the way to do so.

On 3 May 2011, the Taoiseach said that "the way [the appointment process] is structured means that only people with the qualifications, experience and competence would express an interest in the first place". I think I would agree with Senator Quinn that expressing confidence requires an application. Certainly, some high-flying businesspeople in this country would not be prepared to go through an application process. We run into a difficulty there. That is one for the Minister, rather than me, to sort out.

A former Minister in a previous Government, Eamon Ryan, went slightly further by giving authority to a committee to nominate individuals. It was a novel and progressive approach. Is there a case to be made now for a sort of three-way nomination process, in which expressions of interest would be one of the methodologies used? As Senator Whelan pointed out, members of an Oireachtas committee from all parties could work with the Minister in the relevant Department to agree possible individuals who might fill a particular role. If a particular high-flyer was being sought because a certain skills set was needed, and we knew nobody was going to put himself or herself into the firing line to be rejected by an Oireachtas committee, would it be possible for that committee and the Minister to jointly agree a set of names that might be approached with a view to serving on a State board?

I was interested to read the findings of a report, State Boards in Ireland 2012 - Challenges for the Future, which dealt with transparency in the appointments process to State boards. It was based on indepth interviews with 45 members of the Institute of Directors in Ireland in non-executive and senior executive positions in State boards. A majority - 74% - of the directors surveyed said they do not believe the process of appointments to State boards is fair and transparent. A further 64% said State board positions are not advertised widely enough, despite the policy of advertising such vacancies that was introduced by this Government in 2011. These are people who are sitting on State boards.