Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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106. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will provide in tabular form the percentage of vacant positions on State boards under the aegis of his Department that were filled from the panels created through open application by the Public Appointments Service by year from to 2011 to date in 2014. [37486/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The State Boards under the aegis of the Department of Defence when the Government took office were the Civil Defence Board, the Board of Coiste an Asgard and the Army Pensions Board. The Civil Defence Board was identified in the Public Service Reform Plan as a body to be abolished. The then Minister for Defence appointed a 14 person interim Board as a temporary measure in 2011 and in this context none of the positions were advertised. Legislation to dissolve the Board was passed by the Oireachtas in December 2012. Its functions have now transferred back to the Department of Defence.

There were no appointments to the Board of Coiste an Asgard from 2009. In the context of settling the Estimates for the Department of Defence for 2010, the Government decided that the national sail training scheme operated by Coiste an Asgard would be discontinued as recommended in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure.

The formal wind up of the Company including voluntary strike off with the Companies Registration Office was completed in early 2013.

The only body currently under the aegis of the Department of Defence is the Army Pensions Board. The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act, 1927. The Act specifies that the Board shall consist of a chairman and two ordinary members. The two ordinary members must be qualified medical practitioners of whom one must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps. The chairman and the non military ordinary member are appointed by the Minister for Defence with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The Army Medical Corps ordinary member is appointed by the Minister for Defence on the recommendation of the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces.

There have been two appointments to the Army Pensions Board since March 2011. A serving officer was appointed to the position of Army Medical Corps member of the Board in December 2011, and a civilian doctor was appointed as ordinary member in November 2013.

The position of Army Medical Corps ordinary member became vacant due to retirement in 2011. The then Minister for Defence appointed Commandant Adam Lagun to the Board on the recommendation of the Chief of Staff. As the Army Pensions Act, 1927 specifies that one of the ordinary members must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps, this position was not publicly advertised. Details of Commandant Lagun’s appointment to the Army Pensions Board were published in the Iris Oifigiúl on 13 January 2012.

The civilian doctor vacancy was advertised on the Department of Defence website and the Public Appointments Service website. A number of expressions of interest in the position were received and Dr. Loretta Nolan was appointed to the Board on foot of this public advertisement process. Details of Dr. Nolan’s appointment to the Army Pensions Board were published in the Iris Oifigiúl on 10 December 2013.