Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Taoiseach the number of appointments to State boards under the remit of his Department, that were made as a result of applications made through the publicjobs.ie website in the last three years; the number of board posts that were advertised on publicjobs.ie; the number of board posts that were not advertised on the website but instead were directly appointed; and the average pay to directly appointed board members. [4599/14]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO) is the body corporate for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), the only State Agency under the aegis of my Department. The board is currently comprised of the Chair and Deputy Chair of the NESC, both of whom are civil servants from my Department. No fees are payable to members of the NESDO Board.

The National Statistics Board (NSB) comprises eight persons, and appointments are made in line with the provisions of Section 18 of the Statistics Act 1993.

Since taking office four appointments have been made to the NSB. Three appointments relate to the appointment of civil servants. The Act provides that two of the positions on the Board are filled at Assistant Secretary level or higher from my Department and the Department of Finance. The Director General of the CSO is a member of the NSB, ex officio. The fourth appointment relates to the reappointment of the existing Chairperson of the NSB in 2013. The Chairperson receives an annual stipend of €8,978. Four of the seven board members are eligible to receive an annual stipend of €5,985. The other members are serving Civil Servants and receive no additional remuneration for serving on the Board. The average stipend paid to the five non-civil servant board members in 2013 amounted to €4,488.85 - this reflects the fact that one member chose not receive a stipend, and that a number of vacancies existed in late 2013.

Expressions of interest were sought for a number of unfilled positions on the NSB and consideration is currently being given to the filling of these vacancies. These vacancies were not advertised on the publicjobs.ie website.