All positions on state boards will have to be publicly advertised in future, under new rules agreed by the government.
The Cabinet has signed off on new rules for filling the positions, in the wake of outcry over the John McNulty affair.
But individual ministers will still have the final say in who gets appointed - and could still choose members of their own political party.
Minister Brendan Howlin says people who have held public office are often the most qualified people to sit on a state board.
"We need ot make sure that people can have confidence in whoever is appointed," the minister said,
"There's almost a view that if you're associated with a political party, you are somehow not eligible.
"Some of the most eligible people that have been appointed in the past, to any public role, have served in public office - either at local and national level - in the past."
The decision followed the emergence of new details about another political appointment to a state board - this time involving a former Labour candidate for the Dáil.
Former councillor Pascal Fitzgerald was appointed to the board of the Irish Aviation Authority last month - just weeks after losing his position on Clare County Council.
The news emerges as ministers consider new rules to force ALL state appointments to be publicly advertised.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report on Mr Fitzgerald for the National Lunchtime News:
