Tánaiste Joan Burton has told the Dáil it was she who proposed the new process for appointments to State boards.

Ms Burton said she was focused on having a system of appointment to State boards to provide “the best range and mix of people”.

She said she met Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin briefly after a Cabinet sub-committee meeting.

In that discussion, she said, “I proposed and it was accepted that we have a memo for Government which Minister Howlin was preparing at the point in regards to appointments to State boards” and the Cabinet agreed on Tuesday.

The Tánaiste was responding to Fianna Fáil's Robert Troy during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil on the row about the appointment of Fine Gael Seanad candidate John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. He said that since 2011 the Tánaiste had appointed 13 people in her own department and only one had come through the public political appointments process.

Former councillor

Ms Burton reminded him that Fianna Fáil had appointed 182 people to various boards “in a rush” between January and March 2011. She said she stood over all the appointments she had made. These included former Labour councillor Jane Dillon-Byrne, who was appointed to the Imma board. Ms Burton said the councillor had a lifelong involvement in the visual arts, particularly sculpture and theatre.

Independent TD Mick Wallace challenged the Tánaiste to “pull the plug” on the Government and call a general election. He told her “the people would like Enda’s head on a plate and you can deliver that. There is huge anger on the streets. Are you OK with that?”

He said the Government was boasting about economic recovery but there was no recovery for the majority.

The Wexford TD said “Fine Gael has achieved an incredible feat by making Fianna Fail look good through this episode” and he accused Labour of “going along with” Fine Gael’s “neo-liberal right-wing philosophy”.

Ms Burton was challenged by Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald to tell the Dáil, in the wake of her discussion with the Taoiseach, what exactly he was taking responsibility for and what role he played in the appointment of Mr McNulty.

‘Moral tone’

Ms Burton referred to the discovery of what is believed to be the body of an IRA victim and said “your moral tone of outrage when you have nothing to say on what has been revealed in that bog in Meath means that you certainly have two separate sets of standards, unless you want to clarify that now”.

Ms McDonald replied that the Taoiseach’s response was one of “studied incoherence and yours is one of studied evasion”.