Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 January 2014
14. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on whether all senior appointments to taxpayer-funded positions, including appointment to State boards, should be publicly advertised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2676/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere is general agreement there should be more openness about this process. We should agree on it and it is a question of how we go about making this happen. Some positions are referred to Oireachtas committees, for example, chief executive officer posts but we need to be more broad ranging and perhaps more people should be eligible for these posts and should apply through public advertisement.
As the Deputy will be aware, open publicly advertised competition is a key principle of senior level appointments to posts across the public service reflecting the Government's commitment to ensure such posts, which are central to the effective performance of our system of public administration, are filled by high calibre candidates.
In my area of direct responsibility, recruitment into the civil service, including senior appointments, is by way of open competition and all recruitment competitions held by the Public Appointments Service, PAS, are advertised in one or more of the national papers or on the PAS website at: www.publicjobs.ie. Application forms, together with all relevant details, are made available when competitions are announced. Potential candidates can register their interest in a position on the PAS website and will then automatically be notified by e-mail when the competition is announced.
With regard to senior level appointments to the Civil Service at above principal officer level, the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, holds competitions for and advises Ministers and Government as appropriate on appointments to civil service posts at Secretary General, deputy secretary and assistant secretary and equivalent levels. Since early 2007 the policy has been that open competitions are held for assistant secretary and deputy secretary and equivalent posts and more recently this policy has been extended to Secretary General posts.
With regard to recruitment to the wider public service, various Ministers, in accordance with the legislation setting up public service bodies or agencies under their aegis, are responsible for matters relating to senior appointments in those bodies. Clearly, the public interest is usually best served by opening public service posts to the widest pool of candidates. The Deputy will recall that the recent appointment of an Ombudsman was made following an open and public request I made for expressions of interest from appropriately qualified candidates.
I thank the Minister. We are agreed on the principle but it is not being applied. The Minister mentioned his Department. Following Question Time, we will debate his appointments to the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO. I never saw the advertisements seeking people to be appointed as an ordinary member or as the new chairperson in the newspaper. The appointments were made in secret behind closed doors and we will rubber-stamp them in the House in a few minutes. I do not object to those who will be appointed but the process was not as outlined by the Minister in reply to this question. Where is the breakdown between his stated policy for his Department and his motion to appoint people to two senior State appointments? He flouted everything he said in his reply to make them.
The board of Irish Water has been appointed. I did not see advertisements for board members. Fine Gael got a councillor on the board. I do not know whether the Labour Party gets a nominee but the Minister might inform us where all these advertisements were placed.
We will debate the SIPO appointments in a minute. As the Deputy will be aware, these are restricted appointments. He has read the Act. The chairperson has to be a serving or former member of the Supreme Court or High Court. I received two formal applications from such qualified people and I recommended one for appointment. The other appointee must be a former or serving Member of the Oireachtas but not of the European Parliament. The outgoing appointee was a distinguished member of the Fianna Fáil Party and his predecessor was a distinguished member of the Labour Party. The nominee I propose is a distinguished former Member of the House representing the Fine Gael Party, which is the largest group in the House. That is a reasonable way of progressing such an appointment.
I appreciate the Minister received applications. However, members of the public watching these proceedings heard the Minister refer to advertising posts but then he qualified that by stating these are restricted posts under legislation.
That is the law.
I acknowledge it is the law.
There are not many former Supreme Court or High Court judges.
I have no objection to the gentleman and I will have no issue with the appointment. However, the impression the Minister gave is that all these posts are publicly advertised and when I pressed him on a particular post, he replied it was an exception under legislation. The public hear the good news but when the issue is teased out, that transpires not to be the case when one delves into particular appointments.
I refer again to the most recent appointments, which were to the board of Irish Water. I never saw advertisements for this. That was a closed shop. Many of those on the board are Bord Gais employees or connected to political parties. The Minister will say this does not relate to his Department but we all agree on the principle of public sector reform and reform of the political system. Perhaps he will reinforce what he believes in discussions with his ministerial colleagues.
I am restricted regarding the appointments that will come before the House shortly. However, I am reviewing the base legislation and we will debate that. I must be careful not to show disrespect for high office but I am not sure that the chairman of SIPO should necessarily be a former judge of the Supreme Court or High Court. We can examine that when we review the legislation. I am glad we have two distinguished and honourable representatives to fill the vacancies under the current legislative provision.
