Independent board member denies conflict of interest

The chairman of the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is also on the board of Independent News and Media, with whom PAS places many of its recruitment ads. Emma Browne reports

A board member of Independent News and Media (INM) plc is also chairman of the board of the Public Appointments Service (PAS), which places a large proportion of its recruitment advertisements in the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent (owned by INM). The PAS spent €1.5 million on advertising in 2005. The man concerned, Frank Murray, denies there is a conflict of interest, as he says the board does not deal with advertising-related issues.

The PAS was set up in October 2004 under the Public Services Management Act of 2004. PAS is charged with recruiting for the Civil Service and aiding other public bodies with recruitment, such as An Garda Síochána, health boards and local authorities. It took over from the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission, where Frank Murray had previously been a Civil Service Commissioner, recruiting civil servants. He took up his position as board member with Independent News and Media plc in August 2003, while still a Civil Service Commissioner. In 2004, he was made Chairman of the board of PAS. He denies that there is any conflict between his two board memberships. He says he checked with the then CEO of the Civil Service Commission before taking up the position in INM and there was no problem.

In 2005 PAS spent €1.5 million on advertising. A majority of this was spent with daily newspapers, the Irish Times, Irish Examiner and Irish Independent, but a breakdown of exactly where the money was spent was not available. More public sector jobs are advertised with the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, because they have a larger audience reach. A current public sector job search in the classifieds of the Irish Times turns up no ads, but a similar search in the Independent website shows 13 jobs currently advertised by the PAS.

Traditionally Independent newspapers have also carried a majority of the healthcare recruitment advertisements (PAS aids the health services with recruiting and runs advertisements on their behalf at times). Figures from January 2006 show that more healthcare and education jobs were advertised in the Irish Independent than the Irish Times. Out of these two areas, 1,534 jobs were advertised in the Irish Independent; 1,244 in the Sunday Independent; 526 in the Irish Examiner and 320 in the Irish Times. Figures from the Institute of Advertising Practitioners BASE/Adspend, which calculates the amount spent by various advertisers in newspapers, shows that the Government departments spent more on display advertisements in the Irish Independent than the Irish Times. Most of these advertisements would go through PAS. The figures show that Government departments spent €106,795 advertising with the Irish Independent in 2005. With the Irish Times they spent nothing.

Village asked PAS whether it places more recruitment advertisements with the Irish Times or the Irish Independent. A spokesperson said there was "no discernible difference" and that a majority of the recruitment advertising is done through its website, www.publicjobs.ie. We asked the Irish Times and Independent News and Media for figures on the money spent by Public Appointments Service advertising jobs with them. They said they do not release that information.

Frank Murray says the PAS board has no role in relation to advertising: "I don't get involved with that detail or anything to do with advertising; I don't see any conflict and nothing of any kind like that has arisen." A spokesman for the PAS also said that the board would not deal with advertising.

Board members are appointed by Minister (for Finance) in consultation with the Minister for Environment, heritage and Local Government, the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Previous to his appointment as a Civil Service Commissioner, Murray was a senior civil servant for many years. He entered the civil service in 1960, after doing a BA Diploma in Public Administration in UCD. First, he served in the Forestry Division of the Department of Lands and was transferred to the Houses of the Oireachtas in 1964. In January 1974 he was appointed Private Secretary to the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave. From 1977-1983 he was principal officer in the Northern Ireland and International Affairs division of that department. After that he became Assistant Secretary in the Department of An Taoiseach and Assistant Secretary to the Government for ten years. From 1993-2000 he was Secretary to the Government.