Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will point out the word "vetting" because it is being used often. We should really think about the word and not use it. The term is undefined and vague and is being used problematically recently. The idea that because somebody has applied for a public service job, he or she is already suitable for absolutely any job gives the lie to the section we were just discussing a minute ago, which said there were all these specific skills and competences needed. The fact a person is a generalist who qualified through a public service job for something completely different gives absolutely no guarantee he or she will have any of that soup, although the ingredients are very good, or any of those skills.

Can we stop suggesting that somebody having qualified for a job once, in a general sense, means they are suitable for absolutely any role? An Bord Pleanála is not a generalist function of the public service. It is an expert board with specific expertise requirements and responsibilities. Maybe the problem of the Minister picking various people and sending them off can be addressed in the Dáil. There is nothing to say the Minister even considers the list of already-established expertise. It is simply a case of the applicants having been checked already. The idea of simply being qualified for something else does not carry through. That is not a correct argument to use. We would have no expertise. The Climate Change Advisory Council could just be anybody who had qualified for any job, anywhere, ever.

These are expert bodies with specific functions and if one is appointing somebody to one of those bodies, the person should be able to directly add to the body. The thing they add to it should not simply be that they used to work for the Minister. There has been a lack of scrutiny. The civil servant process could have been improved by linking the appointment system with the qualifications that were already identified as being what the board needs. Let us not act as if apples and oranges are the same.

With regard to the other issue of the chair and the open competition, we will come further to those sections but I would be interested to hear more about this open competition system and how exactly it will work. All we know is there will be systems and procedures the Minister will dream up. I would be interested to see what the open competition system is. With regard to the open competition determination, will there be a screening process? We do not know how it will be put forward. We only know there might be a board or a committee. How will the open competition system work, if we are keen to ensure absolutely everybody can apply? Maybe we will come to that when we come to the sessions on the appointment of a chair.