Isme calls for independent body to make State board appointments [IrishTimes]
- Published: 27 January 2011
AN INDEPENDENT commission to appoint people to State boards should be set up to prevent “political cronyism”, the small businesses group Isme has said.
The call came after 48 appointments were made by the Government to the boards of State bodies in the last 10 days, including 25 made by the Taoiseach. A further 10 appointments are expected to be made shortly.
Over the Christmas break, 90 such appointments were made.
The figures, released to Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar yesterday, outlined details of appointments made between January 14th and 25th.
They showed Taoiseach Brian Cowen appointed 25 people to the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), seven for the first time. In his capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs the Taoiseach is also likely to make 10 appointments to the Emigrant Services Advisory Committee shortly.
Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith made four appointments to the Bookmakers’ Appeals Committee.
Mary Hanafin, under her enterprise portfolio, made two appointments to Forfás and three to the National Competitiveness Council.
Former minister for transport Noel Dempsey appointed a new member to the board of the National Transport Authority.
In her capacity as Minister for Culture, Ms Hanafin made six appointments to the National Museum of Ireland, five of which were new.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
