Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 486: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will list the details of all State appointments open to direct choice by him on 10 March 2011. [9149/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The bodies under the aegis of my Department are the Civil Defence Board, the Army Pensions Board and the Board of Coiste an Asgard. The Civil Defence Board was established in 2003. The Minister for Defence can directly appoint four persons to the Board who, in his opinion, have experience in business, industry, finance or administration relevant to the Board's functions.

The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act, 1927. The Board is made up of a chairman and two ordinary members. The two ordinary members must be qualified medical practitioners of whom one must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps. The chairman and the non-military ordinary member are appointed by the Minister for Defence with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance. The Army Medical Corps ordinary member is appointed by the Minister for Defence.

Appointments to the Board of Coiste an Asgard are a matter for the Minister for Defence. In the context of settling the Estimates for the Department of Defence for 2010, the Government decided that the national sail training scheme operated by Coiste an Asgard would be discontinued as recommended in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure. As a result, no funding was provided in 2010 or 2011. The company has been inactive since that decision.