F70[1. The position of Commissioner shall be a position in the Civil Service (within the meaning of the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004) and a person shall not be appointed to be the Commissioner unless the person has been duly selected following a competition under that Act for the position.]

2. The term of office of the Commissioner shall be 5 years and a person may be reappointed to the office for a second or subsequent term.

3. The Commissioner shall be paid such remuneration and such allowances for expenses as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may from time to time determine.

4. The Commissioner—

(a) may at any time resign his or her office by letter addressed to the Minister and the resignation shall take effect on and from the date of receipt of the letter,

(b) may at any time be removed from office by the Minister if, in the opinion of the Minister, he or she has become incapable through ill-health of effectively performing his or her functions or has committed stated misbehaviour, and

(c) shall in any case vacate his or her office on attaining the age of 65 years.

5. The Minister may appoint such and so many persons to be members of the staff of the Commissioner as he or she considers necessary to assist the Commissioner in the performance of his or her functions and such members shall receive such remuneration and be subject to such other terms and conditions of service as the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, determine.

6. Members of the staff of the Commissioner shall be civil servants within the meaning of the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1956.

7. The Minister may delegate to the Commissioner the powers exercisable by him or her under the F70[Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004], and the Civil Service Regulation Acts, 1956 to 1996, as the appropriate authority in relation to members of the staff of the Commissioner and, if the Minister does so, then, so long as the delegation remains in force—

(a) those powers shall, in lieu of being exercisable by the Minister, be exercisable by the Commissioner, and

(b) the Commissioner shall, in lieu of the Minister, be for the purposes of this Act the appropriate authority in relation to members of the staff of the Commissioner.

8. (1) The Commissioner shall keep, in such form as may be approved of by the Minister, all proper and usual accounts of all moneys received or expended by him or her and all such special accounts (if any) as the Minister may direct.

(2) Accounts kept in pursuance of this paragraph in respect of each year shall be submitted by the Commissioner for audit to the Comptroller and Auditor General in the following year on a date not later than a date specified by the Minister and, as soon as may be after the audit, a copy of those accounts, or of such extracts from those accounts as the Minister may specify, together with the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the accounts, shall be furnished by the Commissioner to the Minister who shall cause copies of the documents so furnished to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

9. The Commissioner may delegate to any members of the staff of the Commissioner any of his or her functions under this Act save those conferred by section 7.]

F71[10. (1) Where the Commissioner is for any reason temporarily unable to act as the Commissioner or the office of the Commissioner is vacant, the Minister shall appoint a person to be the Commissioner for the duration of the inability or until an appointment is made in accordance with paragraph 1, as the case may be, and the person so appointed may perform all the functions conferred on the Commissioner by this Act.

(2) A person appointed under this paragraph shall hold office upon such terms and conditions as may be determined by the Minister after consultation with the Minister for Finance.

11. The Commissioner may, if he or she considers it appropriate to do so in the interest of the fair and efficient discharge of the business of his or her office, determine the order in which different classes of such business shall be discharged having regard to the following matters:

(a) the grounds of the applications under section 8,

(b) the country of origin of the applicants,

(c) any family relationship between applicants,

(d) the ages of the applicants and, in particular, of persons under the age of 18 years in respect of whom applications are made,

(e) the dates on which applications were made.]