Tánaiste Joan Burton faces motion of no confidence

Tánaiste Joan Burton faces a motion of no confidence in the Dáil next week over her decision to bypass a competitive process and appoint former trade union leader David Begg as chairman of a State board.

The Independent Alliance group of deputies has tabled the motion over what it described as Ms Burton's "blatant display of cronyism" in appointing Mr Begg, a former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, as chairman of the Pensions Authority. Ms Burton defended the move on Friday and said Mr Begg was a person of considerable expertise.

The Independent Alliance includes Dublin Rathdown's Shane Ross, Waterford's John Halligan, Roscommon-Galway's Michael Fitzmaurice, Kerry's Tom Fleming and Finian McGrath of Dublin Bay North.

The motion will be debated in the Dáil next week and the alliance accused Ms Burton of not following the Government's guidelines on State board appointments. Ms Burton denied the accusation, saying she was satisfied all the correct procedures were followed. In Paris, the Tánaiste said: "I had to look for somebody who was qualified to guide the oversight of pension regulation in Ireland, to actually safeguard pensions.

“I needed somebody of very considerable expertise and experience in relation to the matters who would also be in a position to get the Pension Authority to promote the further development of pensions in Ireland, but also to oversight [sic] the pension regulator and to particularly provide for the security of those schemes. Mr Begg has an outstanding record in this area.”

She said there had been no lobbying on Mr Begg’s behalf.

In making the appointment, Ms Burton used a clause in the guidelines published last January following the controversy over the appointment of Fine Gael Seanad candidate John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Highly qualified

The clause allows for exceptions from a competitive process where a minister “has independently identified a person who is evidently and objectively highly qualified and capable of effectively discharging the role of chair of a state board and who has not otherwise applied through the stateboards.ie process”.

However, Mr Ross described it as an “extraordinary display of cronyism”, saying: “This type of appointment was supposed to have died after the John McNulty affair.”

Mr Ross also called on Mr Begg to withdraw from the nomination process. Mr Begg will have to appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions on his nomination.

Mr Begg said on Friday he would have "no problem" if the Government wanted to reconsider his nomination to the position, which was paid €20,520 per year. "I won't stand in the way of that. I have to appear in front of the Oireachtas Committee at the end of the month and if they have reservations about my appointment, I will acknowledge that. If they want to get someone else for the job, there will be no offence taken by me," he told RTÉ Radio.