asked the Minister for Finance whether it is impolitic and not in the public interest that senior officers in Government Departments should have personal and pecuniary interests in commercial undertakings which from time to time may have occasion to apply to such Departments for facilities in respect of their commercial activities; and whether, in order to maintain the Civil Service in the highest public esteem, he will consider the advisability of issuing an official statement indicating that the Government consider it undesirable that civil servants should have such relations with trading concerns.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Government Officers and Commercial Undertakings.
It would be impossible to give a categorical reply to the Deputy's question. Each case must be examined on its merits as it arises. The general position seems to me to be adequately safeguarded by the instructions issued in December, 1929, for the guidance of the Civil Service. I may quote from these instructions a paragraph bearing on matters of the type referred to in the question:
"A civil servant who, in the course of his official duties comes into contact with any matter affecting a business organisation in which he has an interest, should immediately disclose the measure of his interest to the head of his Department so that some other officer may, if the head of the Department considers it necessary, be asked to deal with the matter."
The foregoing instruction was brought to the notice of each member of the staffs of Government Departments at the time it was issued and has since been brought to the notice of newly recruited officers. It is not considered that the issue of further instructions is required.
I do not wish to place unnecessary restrictions on the liberty of civil servants. It would be both impolitic and contrary to the public interest to do so, except in case of proven need, which does not arise at present.
While the regulation which the Minister has quoted, which was drafted in 1929, might be quite applicable to normal conditions, does he not feel that, in existing conditions, in view of the scope and extent of Government regulation and control over various classes of businesses and hence the necessity of maintaining the reputation for integrity of civil servants in the eyes of the public at the highest possible point, it would be advisable for the Government to take on itself the responsibility of indicating, as set out in the question, that such connections are not advisable at the present time rather than of leaving the responsibility of doing so on individual civil servants? Would the Minister not consider that it would be giving a reassurance to the public to have such an attitude adopted by the Government during the period which the country is passing through at the moment.
I do not think that the citizens need any reassurance from me of from the Government with regard to the high sense of responsibility of civil servants—either those in high positions or those in low positions. If I thought there was need for the issue of a special Order in any case, I would issue it, or take any other step that might be necessary at any time to safeguard, with scrupulous regard for the public interest, the Civil Service and the Government as a whole.
Is it not true that, in one case, a higher civil servant readily expressed his willingness to resign his Civil Service position and was repeatedly asked to retain it?
There was only one case that I heard of where a civil servant had an interest of a superior kind in a business. If that is the case that the Deputy has in mind, I understand that that civil servant, more or less, expressed his desire to give up the business or retire from the Civil Service.
And he was, in fact, asked to remain in the public service.
He has been asked to remain in the public service.
In formulating the question, I had not in mind any proceedings that took place in the Dáil or elsewhere in the previous week. I raised the matter purely as a question of Government policy. We all appreciate the tremendous power that is being placed in the hands of civil servants. There is all the greater necessity that there should not be even a shadow of doubt in the minds of the public as to the complete independence of civil servants.
I fully appreciate that the Deputy had not any particular individual in mind and that it is purely in the interests of the public that he is raising the question. I appreciate his doing so. I have no objection to the Deputy or to any other Deputy raising this or any other matter. I hope, when matters of the kind are raised, to give them the fullest examination and the most careful consideration. If I thought that, in the public interest, there was any necessity for the making of any special regulation by reason of the one case that has been referred to, then it, certainly, would be made.