Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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263. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 245 of 26 February 2015, the reason appointments were made to the board of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland without a public competition; if he considers it good practice to have made such appointments in the knowledge that the Government of which he is a member viewed such practice dimly and was imminently to reform these processes; if he will further explain the way it is not a conflict of interest to make an appointment to the board and compliance committee of a person with very close previous professional links with large media entities, which are routinely the subject of complaints before the compliance committee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13825/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The recent appointments to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the statutory Committee were made by the Government in accordance with Section 8 of the Broadcasting Act 2009.The appointment of members to the Compliance Committee does not come within the new arrangements on Appointments to State Boards. With regard to the appointments to the BAI, I issued a press release last October notifying my intention to fill a number of pressing board vacancies in advance of the new arrangements for appointments to State Boards becoming fully operational. A copy of the press release is available on my Department's website.

I would also point out that in the case of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), there are a number of specific statutory measures, additional to the provisions of the Ethics legislation, in place governing conflicts of interest that may arise in the course of the work of both the Authority and its Committees and providing for transparency, accountability and independence. Section 23 of the Broadcasting Act 2009 obliges the Authority to draw up and adopt a Code of Conduct in respect of controls on interests and ethical behaviour to apply to each member of the Authority, statutory committee, advisory committee and members of staff.

The revised Code was approved by the Authority in November 2013 on the recommendation of the Finance Audit and Risk Committee and is available on the website of the BAI.

The Code contains a number of specific provisions governing matters of conflict of interest. In addition, members of the statutory Authority and Committees are subject to the obligations placed on them by the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995 and the Standards in Public Office Acts, 1995 and 2001. Authority and Committee members are also subject to Sections 21 and 22 of the Broadcasting Act 2009, which provides for the disclosure of any conflicts of interest. In addition, Section 20 of the Broadcasting Act places duties of accountability to Oireachtas Committees on the Chief Executive, Chairperson of the Authority and the Chairpersons of the Statutory Compliance and Contract Awards Committees.