Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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334. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he was aware that new procedures for vetting the chairpersons of semi-state boards were imminent when he appointed the chairperson of the Irish Greyhound Board (details supplied) in 2011. [25164/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware it is Government policy in the case of those being proposed for appointment as chairpersons of state boards, that such persons will be required to make themselves available to the appropriate Oireachtas committee to discuss the approach which they intend to take to their role as chairperson and their views about the future contribution of the body or board in question. This new policy was included in the Programme for Government in March 2011. I appointed the person named as chairman of Bord na gCon in April 2011.

In September 2011 the person named made himself available to go before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine for the purposes outlined above but the Committee opted not to request the person named to meet with them. This was clarified in a letter to my Department on 3 October 2012 when the Joint Committee advised that they did not require to meet the chairpersons of state boards who had already been appointed by the Minister prior to that date. However, the person named has appeared on two occasions in 2014 before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on issues relating to Bord na gCon.