Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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583. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of appointments made to State boards under his Department's remit since March 2011; the number of positions that have been advertised; the number of applications to the boards; the number of appointments to the board that were drawn from the applications; the current number of vacancies on each board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28984/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Full details of the appointments that I have made to State Boards are available on my Department's .  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 reiterated 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 have received over 500 expressions of interest to date.

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 114 appointments and 46 re-appointments since March 2011 and a number of other appointments are in the process of being made at the moment. Of the 114, 51 (44%) 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 will generally appear before the Joint Oireachtas Committee prior to their appointment taking effect.