Varadkar: McNulty appointment is not a stroke

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has defended the appointment of Fine Gael Seanad nominee John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) last week.

Expected to win the Seanad byelection because of Fine Gael’s majority in the Seanad, Mr McNulty will have to stand down from the museum board if elected.

Speaking in Dublin this morning, Mr Varadkar said Mr McNulty was appointed to bring business experience and regional balance to the Imma board.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a problem here. The gentleman concerned was appointed to the board of Imma to add business experience to that board and to give some regional balance to that national institution. And obviously there’ll be a byelection for the Seanad in the coming weeks,” Mr Varadkar said.

Asked by reporters if he believed the move was a ‘stroke’, he replied: “No I don’t believe so but obviously there’s going to be a byelection for the Seanad and the result of that will be clear.”

The party’s national executive had recommended that unsuccessful local election candidates Stephanie Regan or Samantha Long be the party’s nominee for the vacancy created by Deirdre Clune’s election to the European Parliament.

Earlier Tánaiste Joan Burton said Fine Gael nominations to the Seanad were a matter for that party.

The Labour Party leader was responding to the controversy around the appointment of Mr McNulty.

"My preference and the Labour Party's preference is that we would have appointments to State Boards via the mechanism of the public appointments service," Ms Burton said.

She said she had used this system in the Department of Social Protection. "I'd recommend it," she added.

However, she said Fine Gael nominations to the Seanad were a matter for it.

Responding to reports that three women were overlooked when Mr McNulty was selected for the Seanad, Ms Burton said: “I always welcome women coming forward and participating in politics.”

“That’s what I’ve employed and that’s what I would recommend to other members of Government. I’m aware that Minister [for Arts Heather] Humphries has talked about specific background to her particular selection in this case.

She was speaking in Dublin this morning at the launch of the Momentum programme for jobseekers, where she was accompanied by Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan.

Ms O’Sullivan said the appointments system needed to change and called for greater transparency.

“We need to revise the way in which these appointments are made,” she said.

“I agree with what the Tánaiste has said. In Government priorities there is an impression that we would examine this whole area and it’s something that I think we all want to see made more transparent,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

“I would support what the Tánaiste said and indeed what Senator [IVANA]Bacik as leader of the Labour group in the Seanad said, that we need to basically revise the way in which all of these appointments are made.”

Labour TD Dominic Hannigan tweeted this morning that he was "unhappy" about the development and said he would raise the matter at the Labour parliamentary party meeting.