Manning re-appointed Human Rights Commission President

[David Cochrane]

The Government has today announced that they have re-appointed Dr. Maurice Manning to serve for a second five year term as President of the Human Rights Commission. Dr. Manning’s term of office will run from 1 August, 2007 to 31 July, 2012.

Announcing the appointment, Minister Lenihan said “Dr. Manning has served with distinction as President of the Commission over the past 5 years. He has been responsible for the steady development of the Commission from its formative stage to where it is now, in a position to take on the full range of its statutory responsibilities under the Human Rights Commission Acts 2000 and 2001. I have every confidence that Dr. Manning will build on the good work undertaken by the Commission under his stewardship during his first term of office and that he will continue to provide effective leadership and guidance to the new Commission which was appointed last August.”

[johnfás]

Maurice is a great guy - good lecturer too for the couple of times I had him as a guest lecturer!

[lostexpectation]

http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=24848 :/

[David Cochrane]

http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=24848 :/

Official government announcement this morning.

[The Earl of Desmond]

Another example of a Fine Gael person being appointed to a serious and policy driven area because it is not possible to find anyone in FF capable of such a role.

There was a very funny article about Ahern being appointed the first President of Europe in the Sindo yesterday - not a hope in hell of such a thing but it gave me a laugh all the same.

But well doen to Maurice - for some reason he always reminds me of Roy Jenkins - not sure why!

[Insider2007]

One of the reasons Maurice was appointed is because Bertie is a fan of his. It is a superb appointment. Maurice has done an excellent job.

[corelli]

Congrats to Maurice, very good President of the Commission and a very nice guy, in addition. In the large profile piece in the Sunday Tribune yesterday on Denis O'Brien Maurice was mentioned as being the one who convinced O'Brien to buckle down at University and secured O'Brien's post grad place in Boston.

[The Earl of Desmond]

Insider - I doubt very much Bertie has the intellectual ability to make a public appointment based on how someone will shape and influence public debate on Human Rights but instead Maurice was recommended to him by someone else and as he couldn't see any FFers wanting the post he raised no objections.

But having said that I don't want to imply that Maurice was a bad choice.

I just don't buy the idea of Bertie sitting as his desk and pondering a list of names and choosing them on the basic of one having a greater intellect etc - I don't think his mind works that way.

[corelli]

In fact, and without giving too much away, the Government did not look for anyone else to fill the position when came up for re-appointment. The usual way would be for a public advertisement process and then an independant panel would consider the applications, as happened with the other members of the Commission. This did not happen in this instance. As Maurice was already the sitting President they obviously saw no point in considering anyone else given his able handling of the position over the last 5 years. Additionally the legislation setting up the Commission specifically states that the President serves for a period of 5 years and he/she may be re-appointed for a further period of 5 years.

As a final point I have it on good authority that Maurice was appointed by Government at the direct request of the Taoiseach.

[The Earl of Desmond]

The important bit is the 'he/she maybe reappointed' as this means Bertie could avoid making any decisions and if there is any decision he likes to make more than others it is the decision not to make a decision.