Over 240 members of the public have applied for eight positions on the RTÉ board and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, membership of which has been opened to the public for the first time.

"This is a huge response when you consider that this is the first time that members of the public have been allowed to apply for a seat on a state board.

Also, there has been very little publicity about the posts," a spokesman for the Public Appointments Service, the state recruitment agency, said last week.

Applications, which closed at midnight last Thursday, were evenly spread between the two, with 120 applying for the four seats on the RTÉ board and 120 for the four positions on the newly constitut­ed Broadcasting Authority.

But those members of the public lucky enough to get through the vetting and selection process are better off getting the RTÉ job, as it pays €15,750 a year, while the Broadcasting Authority pays €6,300 a year.

Earlier this year, in a radical shake-up of the tradition where the government of the day appoints party supporters and friends to state boards, communications minister Eamon Ryan agreed to reserve seats for the public.

Since then, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has also proposed that seats on the new Fás board should be reserved for the public, indicating that this has now become government policy.

The four members of the public appointed to the RTÉ board will join the station's religious correspondent, Joe Little, who was elected to the board by RTÉ staff earlier this year.

The station's director general, Cathal Goan, will also be on the board as well as six other members yet to be nominated by Ryan.

On the Broadcasting Auth­ority, which is charged with ensuring the broadcasting services best serve the needs of the people, the four selected will join chairman and former head of RTÉ Bob Collins and Irish Times journalist John Waters.