Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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622. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of State board appointments that have been made under the aegis of her Department in 2014 without being advertised; the number that have been made of persons who had not formally applied for consideration of the particular appointment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46541/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government recently agreed on a Revised Model for Ministerial Appointments to State Boards, which complements the existing system with a more structured approach to ensure that vacancies on State Boards are populated in a transparent way by the high-calibre personnel required to successfully perform their mandates. Guidelines in this regard have just been published by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I am now working to implement this revised model in my Department.With regard to the information sought by the Deputy, I am advised that, during 2014:8 appointments were made where the positions were not advertised; 18 re-appointments were made, the bulk of which related to a single body with an academic focus on which the members serve pro bono; and 3 people were appointed to boards in an ex-officio capacity on the nomination of an external body. In 3 instances, vacancies were advertised but were filled by people who had not responded to the public advertisement of the vacancies in question. For completeness, I should say that one appointment was made by the North South Ministerial Council to an agency of a North South Implementation Body, on foot of the process by which such nominations are proposed on a 50:50 basis from each jurisdiction.