CONTROVERSY surrounding Leo Varadkar’s allegations of cronyism in appointments to State boards continued yesterday with Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins calling on him to apologise following what he said was an admission that the Fine Gael TD had got it wrong.
Mr Varadkar denied he made such an admission and called again for an overhaul of the system to make it transparent.
Mr Varadkar told The Irish Timeshe had never said all those appointed were political cronies.
“That is not the point,” he said. “I was making no allegations about any individual. But the whole thing is totally non-transparent. What we need is open advertisement and scrutiny by a Dáil committee.
“Many of those appointed were excellent people, others came from the usual pool of social partnership insiders such as trade union officials, business organisation officials, civil servants and officials working for an NGO. I never said that all appointees were friends and supporters of Fianna Fáil.” He added that among those appointed were Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Bohan, who was appointed to the Health and Safety Authority, and Fianna Fáil party trustee Rich Howlin, who was re-appointed as chairman of the National Building Agency.
Previous appointees had included former minister Gerry Collins (who is also Niall Collins’s uncle) to the DAA, former Fianna Fáil general secretary Pat Farrell to the VHI and HSE and former agriculture minister Joe Walsh to Bank of Ireland, he said.
“We want to introduce a new system of public appointments in which positions are advertised, nominees are given a letter of appointment and all major appointments are scrutinised by an Oireachtas committee,” said Mr Varadkar.