Hanafin defends Kelly appointment

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin yesterday defended the appointment of former Department of Health secretary general Michael Kelly as chairman of the Higher Education Authority, despite an OECD recommendation that the job should be advertised.

Mr Kelly stepped down from his health job in the wake of the Travers Report.

An OECD report says the position of HEA chairman, which has a salary of €166,000, should be internationally advertised to ensure the best possible candidate was found.

However, Ms Hanafin, on a visit to Limerick yesterday, said she would not be bound by everything the OECD said.

“I don’t take everything the OECD say as gospel. Michael Kelly will be able to bring his vast experience to this area. It is a time of great reform in the third-level sector.

The decision to make a full-time appointment is a turnaround by the Government, which had intended making it a part-time post.

Ms Hanafin had been seeking someone from the business or industrial sphere to fill the position, a departure from the long-standing practice of appointing retiring secretary generals of the Department of Education to the HEA job. It was considered that retiring Department of Education secretary general John Dennehy would take up the position, but he had indicated he had no interest.