Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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441. To ask the Minister for Health the number of State board appointments that have been made under the aegis of his 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 he will make a statement on the matter. [46548/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Since my appointment as Minister for Health in July of this year, I have made 19 board appointments. Of these, 7 were made on the nomination of bodies specified in legislation and 5 appointments were by Election. Of the 7 appointments made at my discretion, 4 were filled without being advertised.

2 appointments were made to the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal on the advice of the Attorney General's Office, as these members carry out a very specific role in relation to assessing the quantum of awards under the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act.

In the case of the National Haemophilia Council, 2 appointments were made on the Council's recommendations.

In the case of the VHI Board, expressions of interest for vacancies were invited by my Department in February 2014. Since then, as part of the process for assessing VHI's application for authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), the Bank has specified its requirements for the specialist competencies that should be held by VHI board members. The CBI requires particular types of expertise and skill mix for the VHI Board, and an appropriate mix between executive and non executive directors. The CBI assesses all nominations for Board membership under its own independent fitness and probity regime before appointments to the VHI Board can be made. Having followed the CBI process, I recently appointed three members to the Board of the VHI.