Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony has supported his party’s enterprise spokesperson, Leo Varadkar, who has called for a moratorium on government appointments to State boards before it leaves power.
Deputy O’Mahony said that he understood that there were almost 400 positions due to become vacant and his concern was that the vacancies would be filled by political supporters of the Government. “Fine Gael wants to change the system whereby people get appointed to State boards but if the current Government fill those vacancies before their term ends then our hands will be tied,” he said.
“Our call for a moratorium on appointments is extremely reasonable in the current climate where public service recruitment is severely restricted. If the Government wants to emerge with any degree of credit before it leaves office, then the least that they could do is to accede to our request for a moratorium.”
