James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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626. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the agencies or organisations under the remit of her Department; the number that have boards; the number of positions on each board; the number of vacant positions; and the agencies or organisations that have boards whose members have an obligation to appear before committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas. [51494/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Pensions Council, the Low Pay Commission and the Social Welfare Tribunal. Details of the total number of positions on the boards of each of these bodies is set out in tabular format below. There are no current vacancies on any of the boards.

Section 2.8 of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies (August 2016) requires that “persons being proposed by Ministers for appointment as Chairpersons of State bodies are required to make themselves available to the appropriate Oireachtas Committee to discuss the approach they will take to their role as Chairperson and their views about the future contribution of the body or Board in question”.

In addition, the Pensions Regulator (in his role as Chief Executive Officer of the Pensions Authority) is required to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) subject to Section 22A of the Pensions Act 1990 (as amended). A similar provision is included in Section 23 of the Comhairle Act 2000 (as amended) requiring the Chief Executive Officer of the Citizens Information Board to attend the PAC in her official capacity.