Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

322. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform 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. [4023/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware in 2011 the Government introduced new arrangements for the appointment of State board members.  Under the new arrangementsDepartments now invite expressions of interest on their websites from the public in vacancies on the boards of bodies under their aegis. It is open to all members of the public regardless of gender, political affiliations or geographically location to apply for appointment to these vacancies.

I am satisfied that the new arrangements introduced by the Government in 2011 have significantly improved transparency in the making of appointments to State Boards compared with the making of appointments in previous years.

Since the formation of this Government 22 members have been nominated to State Boards under my remit. In the context of the sale of the National Lottery licence, I have considered it appropriate to re-appoint two of the Ministerial nominees to the An Post National Lottery Board; Mr. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh has been re-appointed twice and Mr. Oliver Wilkinson has been re-appointed once.  Consequently, recourse to publicjobs.ie did not arise.  Each of the aforementioned Board members receives an annual fee of €12,600.

The Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act, 2004 states that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (in consultation with Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice and Equality) should appoint members of the Board of the Public Appointments Service.

The Public Appointments Service Board is meant to be representative of our client base.  The majority of the board is therefore civil or public servants, nominated by the relevant Minister.  There is also a union representative nominated by ICTU.  The two external members were appointed by the Minister because of their expertise in strategic change and public service recruitment respectively. The Chairman is paid an annual fee €11,970 and three of the Board members are paid at a rate of €7,695 each per annum. 

In view of these statutory procedures for the appointment of members of the Boards, there is limited scope for me to use the Publicjobs.ie website. The following tables give a breakdown of positions filled on State boards under my remit in since March 2011: