Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide in tabular form the number of organisations or agencies under the aegis of his Department that have vacancies on their board; the length of time any such vacancies have been unfilled; the number of vacancies that have been advertised; the number of applications to fill such vacancies that have been received; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4866/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The information sought by the Deputy is in the following table. It should be noted that in total there are 29 agencies under my Department's remit with a total of 236 individuals currently serving on boards. It is important to note that the boards of each body are appointed in different fashions, with some positions being ex officio positions, some worker directors or others directly appointed by me, or by Government or with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. In almost all cases the legislation provides that a Minister may appoint up to a certain number of individuals. There is rarely a requirement that all positions be filled, and as is outlined below, there are good reasons why not all positions may be filled.

My Department advertised new procedures for appointment to boards on Friday 8th April 2011 which provided for any interested party to express an interest in becoming a member of the board of any of the State agencies for which I have responsibility.  All appointments from that date have followed these procedures. I have received more than 400 expressions of interest since the new procedures were advertised and more than 40 of these individuals have been appointed to various Boards under the Department's aegis. Given the importance of ensuring the right mix of skills and experience on every board, appointments are not necessarily confined to those who have made an expression of interest. On becoming Minister, I was particularly concerned that on many of the boards appointed under the previous Government there were obvious skills and experience gaps, and in my appointments to date, I have sought to rectify this.

It should be noted that I have, from time to time, decided not to fill all existing vacancies. This is the case with a number of smaller bodies under my Department's aegis, where the scale of the agency's operation would not justify a larger board.  Similarly, in a number of cases where the legislation provides for a very large board I have taken the decision not to fill a number of positions. Therefore, where there is flexibility under the relevant Act, I have on occasion appointed less than the maximum number of directors. I have also made considerable efforts to select suitably skilled candidates even if this involved some delay in making the appointment.  I believe that when making appointments to positions that carry terms over a number of years, suitable care must be taken to ensure that appropriate individual are appointed.

A decision on the separation of Cork and Shannon airports, as envisaged under the State Airports Act 2004 was not made until 2012.  As a consequence, when the terms of appointment of the directors of both boards expired on 31 December 2011, a decision was made then not to fill all vacancies on each board until a substantive decision was made on separation and on the future structure of the DAA. 

On 27th November 2012, the Government confirmed its earlier decision in principle to establish Shannon as an independent autonomous airport and to merge it with a restructured Shannon Development to form a new publicly owned commercial entity.  In light of this decision vacancies on both the Cork and Shannon Airport Authority Boards will be filled during the course of 2013.