Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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314. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason she refuses to publicly release the curricula vitae of successful candidates who have been appointed to State boards under her remit; if she will publicly release the curriculum vitae of each successful candidate in the future under the newly announced regime for State board appointments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5350/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government has agreed a Revised Model for Ministerial Appointments to State Boards, which provides a more structured approach to ensurethat vacancies on State Boards are populated in a transparent way by the high-calibre personnel required to successfully implement their mandates. My Department is now implementing this revised model in accordance with the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boardsissued by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, last November. The guidelines provide that:"At the time of the appointment of new members of State Boards, information shall be published by the relevant Department, for example in the press release announcing the new member(s), on the specific reasons the person(s) appointed meet the criteria determined by the relevant Minister for the role."

The guidelines do not propose the publication of the Curricula Vitae of the successful candidates.

With regard to the specific issue referred to in the Deputy's Question, I assume that this relates to a decision made by an official of my Department last year under the provisions of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. I am advised that the decision, which was made independently by the official in question, took account of all relevant factors, including matters relating to personal information. I am also advised that the requester in that case did not avail of the option to appeal the decision. As Minister, I have no role in determining what information is released in response to FOI requests.

I should also add that board membership details are generally published on the websites of the relevant bodies operating under the aegis of my Department. In many cases, these include biographies of board members and I expect that this practice will continue.