Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross has said he is reviewing the size of some "unnecessarily large'' State boards.

“I am currently considering the size of boards under my remit and the need, or otherwise, to fill each vacancy,’’ he added.

He said current guidelines for appointments to State boards did not go far enough and he had asked his department to introduce “an additional internal process’’ to allow him to fill vacancies with greater confidence in the person appointed. Appointing somebody on the basis of a curriculum vitae alone was unacceptable, he added.

New guidelines

He said he had made 16 reappointments, with three further reappointments to the CIE subsidiary companies, effective from December 1st.

But he had not yet filled vacancies from the Public Appointments Service (PAS) process, he added.

Mr Ross said it was not a matter which could be treated in any trivial way by a member of the House or Minister.

It was something in constant need of improvement and, under the last government, attempts were made to improve procedures by issuing new guidelines.

The Minister was replying to Labour TD Alan Kelly, who said there were 36 vacancies across the various agencies under the Minister's remit and a further 16 places would become vacant by the end of the year.

“How can we be certain many of these boards actually have the expertise to function ?’’ Mr Kelly asked.