Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Senator is aware, I brought in a completely new arrangement for appointments to State boards. The Government approved this at the end of last year. Serendipitously, this morning I launched the new process in the Public Appointments Service and the stateboards.iewebsite was formally launched. Virtually everyone involved was gathered at the launch. There were a couple of hundred people at it. These were people not only from the State agencies but people from recruitment agencies and organisations such as the Public Appointments Service and the top level appointments committee.

There was a discussion and I was very clear that we want to have transparency on lobbying. However, I also want to encourage people to lobby for a position on State boards. As I said when we discussed it in the other House, this amendment misses the point. We want the National Women's Council, the Disability Federation of Ireland, community groups and so forth to lobby to have people on State boards and for them to say that they have excellent people within their communities. This is an area in which we want openness and transparency so long as it goes through the proper process. This will be through one portal, stateboards.ie. The criteria for appointment will be set out and all applications will be individually vetted and shortlisted for a Minister to make a final decision. It misses the point of the new arrangement to say that this is something which should be done almost in secret and that people should secretly and not in a proactive, open way seek appointment to State boards. This will be done in a completely open way. The National Women's Council and other groups which are under-represented on State boards will be able to lobby formally for their views to be represented. This is part of the broadening scope I wish to see achieved.