Coalition to install 300 people on State boards before election

THE GOVERNMENT is to make almost 300 appointments to State boards before it leaves office early next year. The Green Party last month demanded an election in January but March has emerged as a more likely date since then for the election.

Information provided to Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar following parliamentary questions, outlined that 35 appointments and reappointments have been made since the Green Party announcement in November. Twenty of these were made by Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

Of a total of 291 appointments due to be made before the end of February, 96 will be made by Minister for Health Mary Harney and 33 by Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe. Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan, who will appoint 31, recently appointed Gerry Horkan, a Fianna Fáil councillor in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, to the Dental Council. Mr Horkan said the post was not remunerated. Some of the appointees will be paid, others will not. Subsistence and travel expenses also apply to some posts.

Between November 22nd and Tuesday of this week, Mr Gormley made two new appointments to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority; four to the board of the National Building Agency, and reappointed four others. He made four appointments to the new Housing and Sustainable Communities Limited board, two new appointments to the Private Residential Tenancies Board and four reappointments to the Heritage Council.

Mr Varadkar called for a moratorium on appointments to State boards until after the election. He said the posts include “some very lucrative ones and some very powerful ones”. I’m not saying any of these people they have appointed are bad . . . there should be Oireachtas scrutiny.”

However, a spokesman for the Greens in Government said 13 of that 20 were serving civil servants and would not receive fees. He said none of them had any link with the party.

Separately, barrister Rosemary Healy-Rae was reappointed to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal on November 11th. Ms Healy-Rae is daughter of Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae who supported the Budget. Ms Healy-Rae, who could not be contacted, has previously said she was appointed to the board in 2007 and on neither occasion had it anything to do with her father’s Government support.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS WHO'S ON WHAT BODIES:

Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal                  Karen Fergus*

Irish Blood Transfusion Service Board                           Helen O’Leary

VHI                                                                                 Cathriona Hallahan

Ireland/US Commission for Educational Exchange         Geraldine McCarthy*

Dublin Docklands Development Authority                       Dr Berna Grist

DDDA Advisory Council                                                  Eamon O’Reilly

Heritage Council:                                                            Carolynene Ferris*, Brendan Dunford*, Mary Keenan*, Gabriel Cooney*

Private Residential Tenancies Board                              Conn Murray, Joe Meehan

National Building Agency                                                 Rich Howlin*, Eddie Lewis*, John O’Connor, Marie McLaughlin, John McCloskey*, Peter Carey, Ann McGuinness, Gordon Richardson*

Housing and Sustainable Communities Limited              Marie McLaughlin, John McCloskey, Peter Carey, Ann McGuinness

Bord Gáis Éireann                                                          Not stated

Not stated                                                                       Kieran Dunne*

Bord Bia                                                                         Prof Fergal O’Gara

Labour Court                                                                 Kevin Duffy*

Science Foundation Ireland                                          John Travers

NUI Maynooth                                                                Prof Martin G Curley, Teresa Murray

The Dental Council                                                       Gerry Horkan

Letterkenny Institute of Technology                              Michael Fleming

Tipperary Rural Business Development                        Paula Murray, Darragh Scott (Student Rep)*

*Reappointed