25.—(1) At least once every year the Commission shall cause to be published and made publicly available in the State a notice requesting applications from recruitment agencies to be included in a list for the purposes of this section (in this Act referred to as the “listed recruitment agencies”).

(2) (a) The Commission shall prepare, publish and make publicly available in the State the conditions under which recruitment agencies are to be considered for inclusion in a list of recruitment agencies for the purposes of this Act.

(b) The Commission may, from time to time, amend the conditions.

(c) Where the Commission amends the conditions, it shall—

(i) cause a copy to be sent to all recruitment agencies standing specified in the list of recruitment agencies and to every holder of a recruitment licence, and

(ii) cause it to be published by making it publicly available within the State.

(d) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a), the conditions the Commission sets shall include—

(i) that the recruitment agency possesses, at the date of its assessment by the Commission, a tax clearance certificate as referred to in section 26,

(ii) that the candidate recruitment agency complies with any licensing or other requirements necessary to act as an employment or recruitment agency within the State, and

(iii) such other conditions that the Commission considers appropriate to specify.

(3) A recruitment agency seeking to be included on the list shall only be included if it appears to the Commission upon assessment that the agency satisfies the conditions prepared, published and made publicly available by the Commission under subsection (2).

(4) Where for the purposes of subsection (3) the Commission is satisfied, it shall—

(a) include that agency on the list, and

(b) publish the list and make it publicly available in the State or cause it to be so published and made available.

(5) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) and to any terms and conditions in the recruitment licence concerned, a licence holder may seek the assistance of a listed recruitment agency in respect of some of the tasks connected with the selection of persons by virtue of that licence.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the licence holder concerned shall have sole responsibility for the final selection of candidates for appointment or for placing candidates on a panel for appointment.

(c) It is the duty of a licence holder to ensure that the terms and conditions of the recruitment licence are complied with by any listed recruitment agency he or she seeks the assistance of in respect of the task of selection, and nothing in this section shall be read so as to relieve the licence holder of his or her obligations under this Act.

(6) (a) A listed recruitment agency shall remain on the list—

(i) until the operative date in a request to the Commission from the recruitment agency for it to cease to be included in the list or the date of receipt by the Commission of such a request, whichever is the later, or

(ii) subject to subsection (8), where the Commission forms the opinion that the recruitment agency fails to meet the conditions for the time being standing for inclusion on the list, until such date as the Commission considers appropriate, taking into account such recruitment (if any) being undertaken by virtue of this Act when the Commission reached that opinion.

(b) For the purposes of paragraph (a) where recruitment is being assisted by a listed recruitment agency—

(i) when the request is made under subparagraph (i) of that paragraph, or

(ii) when the Commission forms an opinion for the purposes of subparagraph (ii) of that paragraph,

then different dates may be specified in respect of different classes or categories of recruitment.

(7) The Commission shall, from time to time as it considers appropriate, examine and evaluate, or cause to be examined and evaluated, every listed recruitment agency for the purpose of finding out whether or not each of them has complied with the conditions referred to in subsection (2).

(8) Where the Commission is of the opinion that a listed recruitment agency has failed to a material extent to meet any of the conditions specified for the purposes of subsection (2), then—

(a) where the Commission believes that, because of the nature of the failure, it is in the public interest to remove the name of the agency from the list forthwith, the Commission shall so remove that name,

(b) in any other case, the Commission shall give such notice to the agency concerned, as the Commission considers appropriate in the circumstances, of its intention to remove the name of the agency from the list subject to any representations that the agency may wish to make to the Commission on or before a specified date.