Written answers

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Ministerial Appointments

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of all appointments made by him to all State agencies, commercial bodies and all other appointments made by him since taking office, including the State owned banks and the judiciary. [8127/13]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of the qualifications of all the appointees made by him to all State agencies, commercial bodies and all other appointments made by him since taking office including the State owned banks and judiciary for the appointments they have accepted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8145/13]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of appointees and the percentage of appointments made by him to all State agencies, commercial bodies and all other appointments made by him since taking office including the State owned banks and the Judiciary that were subject to a public applications process. [8163/13]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 754 to 756, inclusive, together.

Full details of the appointments that I have made to State Boards are available on my Department's website .

 The new procedures advertised by my Department on Friday 8th April 2011 involved an open invitation to members of the public to submit expressions of interest in serving on the board of any of the Agencies operating under my aegis. I re-iterated this call in recent weeks. In doing so I have sought able candidates  with experience or qualifications in finance (including audit capability and/or project assessment), law, corporate governance, marketing, IT, or  with experience relevant to the transport, tourism and sports sectors.

I stated clearly that, given the importance of ensuring the right mix of skills and experience on every board, appointments would not necessarily be confined to those who had made such an expression of interest.  I may also decide from time to time not to fill all existing vacancies. All appointments from 8th April 2011 have followed these procedures.

In summary, I have made a total of 96 appointments and 42 re-appointments since March 2011 and a number of other appointments are in the process of being made at the moment. Of the 96, 45 (47%) were from persons who had availed of the opportunity to submit an expression of interest.

Also under the new procedures, all new Chairpersons appointed by me have appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee prior to their appointment taking effect.

There have been two exceptions where the individual concerned did not appear before the Oireachtas Committee. They were the appointment of Professor Cecily Kelleher as Chairperson of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety in April 2012 as this is primarily a technical post, and the appointment in July 2011 of Tom Wall as Chairperson of the Railway Procurement Agency to April 2012 as this was an interim appointment pending the merger of the RPA with the National Roads Authority.

To date, the Chairpersons of the following bodies have appeared before the Oireachtas Committee prior to their appointment/re-appointment: 

Road Safety Authority;

National Roads Authority;

Railway Procurement Agency;

Dublin Aviation Authority;

Shannon Airport Authority;

Shannon Foynes Port Company;

Marine Casualty Investigation Board;

Drogheda Port Company;

Galway Harbour Company;

New Ross Port Company;

Wicklow Port Company; and

National Sports Campus Development Agency.

In addition, the Chairpersons of the CIE companies were appointed on the 29th of June 2011. They did not appear before the relevant Joint Oireachtas Committee until the 12th of July 2011 as the Committee was newly established at that point.

All future appointments will continue to be made in this fashion.

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