Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether all public appointments for which he has ministerial responsibility should involve a transparent, open and merit based recruitment process and be subject to prior scrutiny by a panel that is independent of his Department. [7574/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I assume the Deputy is referring to appointments to Boards and other such like bodies which I am required to make from time to time. The Deputy will be aware that in making appointments of this nature, that in some instances the procedures to be followed are set down in statute. In other cases, the law often requires that an appointee be qualified in a certain profession or perhaps be a nominee of a representative body. For example, some appointments to the Legal Aid Board, the Equality Authority and the Property Registration Authority to mention a few, are required to be made in accordance with criteria of this nature.

Another category of appointment is that made by me to boards and/or bodies which may not be subject to any specific statutory provision. I, along with all my predecessors, have made appointments of this nature. I have no proposals to change this system and I would strongly reject an imputation that any such appointment made by me did not have regard to merit and the appointee's capacity to undertake the task required of him or her.