Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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308. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide in respect of State boards under his Department's remit, the number of appointments to State boards; the number of vacancies in State boards ; the number of vacancies in State boards publically advertised; and the number of appointments to State boards drawn directly from the public advertisement process, in period March 2011 to 2015 to date. [23590/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Government introduced new arrangements for the appointment of State board members in 2011.  Under the new arrangements, Departments now invite expressions of interest from the public on their websites for vacancies on the boards of bodies under their aegis. It is open to all members of the public regardless of gender, political affiliations or geographical location to apply for appointment to these vacancies.

I am satisfied that the new arrangements introduced by the Government in 2011 have significantly improved transparency in making appointments to State Boards compared with previous years.

Since the formation of this Government, 51 members have been nominated to State Boards under my remit. In the context of the sale of the National Lottery licence, I have considered it appropriate to reappoint two of the Ministerial nominees to the An Post National Lottery Board; Mr. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh has been re-appointed twice and Mr. Oliver Wilkinson has been reappointed once in light of the disposal of the National Lottery licence.  Consequently, recourse to advertising the positions publicly did not arise.

The Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act, 2004 states that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in consultation with Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice and Equality should appoint members of the Board of the Public Appointments Service.

The Public Appointments Service Board is meant to be representative of our client base.  The majority of the board are therefore civil or public servants, nominated by the relevant Minister.  There is also a union representative nominated by ICTU.  The two external members were appointed by me because of their expertise in strategic change and public service recruitment respectively.

In view of these statutory procedures for the appointment of members of the Boards, there is limited scope for me to use the publicjobs.iewebsite. The following table gives a breakdown of positions filled on State boards under my remit since March 2011:

An Post National Lottery Board

Public Appointments Service Board

The Institute of Public Administration (IPA) has a representative board with nominations from different sectors of the Public Service every two years.

As per the Memorandum and Articles of Association governing the IPA, each of the nominating bodies/sectors is invited by letter to nominate its representative to the Board on a two-yearly basis. As a limited company by guarantee, the IPA is obliged to state its approach to the appointment of board members in its Memorandum and Articles of Association, section 16(1) of which refers to the board make-up and the sectoral nominations. In effect, it would contravene the Memorandum and Articles of Association if board positions were to be advertised.