44.—(1) Subject to subsection (3), each of the following office holders may apply to the Commission to hold a licence (in this Act referred to as a “recruitment licence”) for the purposes of this Act:

(a) the Secretary General of a Department of State or, where more than one person holds the rank of Secretary General in a Department of State, the Secretary General who is the principal officer of the Department;

(b) the chief executive officer of a health board;

F20[(c) the chief executive of a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001;]

F21[(d) the chief executive of an education and training board,]

(e) the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána;

(f) in the case of any other public service body, including any part of the Civil Service to which paragraph (a) does not relate, the person who is the chief executive officer, by whatever name known, of the body concerned.

(2) A recruitment licence may be applied for either generally or in respect of one or more classes of employees or positions.

(3) An application under this section shall not be made in respect of an office declared by a subsisting order under section 2 of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act 1926 to be an office to which that Act applies.