Making appointees to State boards appear before Oireachtas committees would be like a US-style "star chamber" where a "crowd of backwoodsmen spend about a year trying to dig up something" on nominees, according to the Taoiseach.
Mr Ahern said he did not like such an approach, as he defended the appointments to agencies under his remit. The Taoiseach told the Dáil: "I have hardly any say in picking them."
Members of the boards were of the "highest order" and in most instances were recommended by nominating bodies. Mr Ahern also insisted considerable effort was used in "trying to have nominating bodies nominate women".
He added: "I would appreciate if nominating bodies put the same effort into this as do all Government". The Taoiseach made his comments as the Opposition highlighted "public cynicism" about the appointments to prison visiting committees.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said that half of the members of prison visiting committees were either current or former members of Fianna Fáil or the PDs.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, asked if it was true that two lawyers and former Cabinet members, Mr Michael O'Kennedy and Mr David Andrews, had been given a "sinecure" at €60,000 a year on the Refugee Advisory Board.
"I would have thought there are people who are perhaps a bit more deserving of such bounty," Mr Rabbitte said.
The Taoiseach said he had not seen the story and was not responsible for that board, but when the Opposition clarified that it was €60,000 and not €16,000, Mr Ahern said that the deputies "should see how much those people could earn in a week".
Asked his view on nominees appearing before Oireachtas committees, the Taoiseach said that in the US, people in the political system spent an endless amount of effort trying to "get something to throw" at them. "Most of the time they end up appointing the person anyway."
Pressed by the Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, about the low representation of women on State boards, Mr Ahern said he had asked them to use the 40 per cent rule.
