Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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307. To ask the Minister for Defence the number of appointments to State boards under the aegis of his Department and the number of appointments that have been advertised on his Department’s website since March 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46251/15]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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308. To ask the Minister for Defence the number of chairpersons appointed to State boards under the aegis of his Department who have appeared before the relevant joint Oireachtas committee since March 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46266/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 307 and 308 together.

The State Boards under the aegis of the Department of Defence in March 2011 were the Civil Defence Board, the Board of Coiste an Asgard and the Army Pensions Board.

The only State body currently under the aegis of the Department of Defence is the Army Pensions Board. The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act 1927. The Act specifies that the Board shall consist of a chairman and two ordinary members. The two ordinary members must be qualified medical practitioners of whom one must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps. The chairman and the non military ordinary member are appointed by the Minister for Defence with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The Army Medical Corps ordinary member is appointed by the Minister for Defence on the recommendation of the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces.

There have been 5 appointments to the Army Pensions Board since March 2011. Commandant Adam Lagun was appointed to the position of Army Medical Corps member of the Board in December 2011. This position became vacant in October 2014 due to Commandant Lagun being deployed overseas. On the recommendation of the Chief of Staff, the temporary appointment of Commandant Syed Shah to the Board, from 16 October 2014 to 31 May 2015, was made to cover Commandant Lagun’s absence. Commandant Lagun resumed as Ordinary member of the Board in June 2015. The position became vacant again in September 2015 with the deployment overseas of Commandant Lagun. On the recommendation of the Chief of Staff Commandant Zdenek Osecky was appointed temporarily to cover this temporary vacant position, from 10 September 2015 to 30June 2016.

As the Army Pensions Act 1927 specifies that one of the ordinary members must be an officer of the Army Medical Corps, the positions outlined above were not publicly advertised on either occasion. Details of these appointments to the Army Pensions Board were published in the Iris Oifigiúil.

A civilian doctor, Dr. Loretta Nolan, was appointed as ordinary member of the Army Pensions Board in November 2013. The civilian doctor vacancy was advertised on the Department of Defence website and the Public Appointments Service website. A number of expressions of interest in the position were received and an appointment to the Board was made on foot of this public advertisement process.

The Civil Defence Board was identified in the Public Service Reform Plan as a body to be abolished. Against this backdrop, in July 2011, the then Minister for Defence appointed a 14 person interim Board as a temporary measure. In this context, none of the positions were advertised, nor was the chairperson interviewed by an Oireachtas committee. Legislation to dissolve the Board was passed by the Oireachtas in December 2012. Its functions have now transferred back to the Department of Defence. The membership of the interim Board appointed in July 2011 is set out in the following table.

There were no appointments to the Board of Coiste an Asgard from 2009. In the context of settling the Estimates for the Department of Defence for 2010, the Government decided that the national sail training scheme operated by Coiste an Asgard would be discontinued as recommended in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure. The formal wind up of the Company, including voluntary strike off with the Companies Registration Office, was completed in early 2013.

All appointments to Boards under the aegis of my Department are made in accordance with the relevant legislation or regulations.