Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 November 2018
15. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the measures she plans to take to ensure representation of all stakeholders and grades in the film industry on the board of Screen Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47419/18]
View answerFís Éireann is established under the Irish Film Board Acts 1980 to 2011 as a board to assist and encourage the development of a film industry in the State and to empower the board to provide investments, grants, loans and guarantees of loans for the making of films in the state.
Section 12 of the Act provides that the members of the Board shall be appointed by me as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for a period of appointment not exceeding four years. Section 13 provides for the appointment of one of the members of the Board as Chair by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. There is a maximum of seven members of the Board of Fís Éireann.
The Act does not provide for the Board of Fís Éireann to be a “representative” board whereby the composition of the board is determined by the formal connection of members to particular constituencies or stakeholder groups.
Since 2014, the selection of appointees to the Board of Fís Éireann follows the system introduced by the Government whereby all appointments are required to be advertised openly on the State Boards portal www.stateboards.ie operated by the Public Appointments Service (PAS). This means that anyone who considers that they have a contribution to make, can apply to be a member of the Board.
Applications made through Stateboards.ie are processed by way of a transparent assessment system designed and implemented by the independent Public Appointments Service to support Ministers in making appointments to State Boards. This is an open, accessible, rigorous and transparent system which has yielded applications from accomplished, experienced and qualified individuals who wish to make a commitment to public service that might not have previously been identified as available for appointment to State Boards.
I can confirm that all current members on the board of Fís Éireann were selected from applications from candidates deemed suitable by the PAS under the Stateboards system.
