THE NEXT chairmen and women of major State boards, including CIÉ, IDA Ireland and dozens of others, should first be vetted by an Oireachtas inquiry, Fine Gael has said.
It claimed 2,000 appointments to State boards are made by Ministers during the lifetime of any government without any parliamentary scrutiny.
The first list of all ministerial appointments was compiled by Fine Gael's enterprise, employment and trade spokesman Leo Varadkar (Dublin West).
Over 6,000 people are appointed to State boards every five years or so, although a majority of the places are kept for nominees from the social partners, organisations, unions, et cetera.
However, 2,400 are directly appointed by members of the Cabinet, including the most important appointments of chair and vice-chair.
The full list will be published by Fine Gael this week when it produces a document calling for a culling of a significant number of State agencies and boards.
"Over 200 appointments are made without any parliamentary scrutiny, or even a public announcement of the name of the person and their qualifications," said Mr Varadkar.
In future Oireachtas committees should vet the full list of appointments planned by a Minister.
