Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Mac Conghail for raising this issue, which is very important for students and staff of the National College of Art and Design.

As Members know the new guidelines for appointments to State boards were approved by Government in November 2014 and provided for the new State boards website to be put in place. The State boards website was launched earlier this year and is now operational.

The Government has made very significant changes to the way appointments are processed since late last year. I think all will welcome this new level of openness and transparency. The list of State boards to be advertised through the Public Appointments Service system, PAS, and considered to fall under the remit of the new guidelines was provided by PAS to my Department. It did take some time for PAS to finalise the lists of organisations that it would process and the Department did not proceed with the advertisement planned for higher education until there was clarity around what was to be included in the PAS process.

In general higher education institutions are regarded as autonomous institutions in receipt of public funding rather than as State boards, therefore appointments to boards and governing bodies of higher education institutions are not being made through the PAS process. However, in keeping with the principles of the new guidelines for appointments to State boards, my Department sought expressions of interest from suitably qualified candidates for consideration for appointment as chairs and ordinary members to boards and governing bodies of institutions and other bodies in the higher education sector. This included the National College of Art and Design.

Expressions of interest were sought by way of a public advertisement on www.education.ie. PAS also agreed to place a link to this advertisement on its website www.Stateboards.ie. The advertisement was published on the Department of Education and Skills website on 26 February 2015, with a closing date of 19 March. Persons who were registered with the PAS website were also sent notifications of the advertisement. A total of 123 expressions of interest in serving on boards of higher education institutions were received with 24 of these expressing a specific interest in serving on the board of the NCAD. As Members will understand the selection of members of boards requires careful consideration and the membership of a number of boards was under consideration at the same time. The membership and skill sets required for the board of the NCAD has also been given particular attention due to the issues that have arisen at the college in recent times.

I am pleased to say that I have now appointed a new board to the NCAD. I confirm that the following persons submitted an expression of interest in serving on the board of NCAD and have now been appointed: Ms Niamh Brennan, the Michael McCormick Professor of Management at UCD and the academic director of the UCD centre for corporate governance, holds qualifications in corporate governance and has experience of governance through Government appointments and membership of numerous boards; Mr. Blaise Smith, an artist and painter and a graduate of NCAD, who was elected an associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2013; Ms Mary Dorgan is the former assistant CEO of the Health and Safety Authority and is currently a member of the Irish Sports Council and has many years experience of board membership and governance; Ms Karen Furlong has 25 years experience in strategy development, business transformation, organisation design and change management and has managed companies through the new fitness and probity and corporate governance regulatory landscape laid down by the Central Bank; and, Mr. Ian Power is executive director of SpunOut.ie, Ireland's youth information website and non-executive director of the National Youth Council of Ireland. He also has experience of governance issues through his work on the board of the National Youth Council. In addition, I am pleased to say that Professor Mark Rogers, acting registrar and deputy president of UCD has agreed to serve on the board. His appointment to the new board provides an opportunity to strengthen the strategic co-operation between UCD and NCAD. Professor Rogers will also strengthen the board's capacity in terms of his experience and expertise in approaches to student learning. In addition to these board members, I have appointed two academic staff representatives, nominated by the academic staff of the NCAD and two representatives nominated by the student body. I am sure that these new members of the board will be able to fulfil their obligations to the full and will serve well as members of the board of the NCAD.