Vol. 490 No. 2
25 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance when he intends to make regulations to bring senior staff of local authorities, health boards, city and county enterprise boards and members of local authorities under the ambit of the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995, in view of the damage to public trust which could arise from conflicts of interests in these bodies. [9518/98]
As indicated in An Action Programme for the Millennium, the Government is fully committed to fostering public confidence in our system of public administration through a credible ethics regime.
Clearly, this matter requires a co-ordinated approach between myself as Minister for Finance and those of my fellow Ministers who are in charge of the areas referred to by the Deputy. My Department is undertaking consultations with the parent departments of those public bodies which are not subject to an ethics regime with a view to extending the application of the Ethics Act to them. The issue of extending the scope of the Ethics Act to those other agencies mentioned by the Deputy is being addressed in that correspondence.
In so far as the local authorities are concerned, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government is examining the question of the inclusion of an appropriate ethics framework in the context of a local government Bill which he intends to bring forward.
