Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2022
270. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he intends to publish and enact legislation similar to the public sector standards Bill 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17970/22]
View answerThe Bill to which the Deputy refers was brought forward by the previous government in 2015 with the broad aims of:
- Modernising, simplifying and streamlining the existing legislative framework covering Ethics in public office;
- Responding to the recommendations on conflicts of interest contained in the final report of the Mahon and Moriarty Tribunals; and
- Consolidating local and national ethics requirements.
The Public Sector Standards Bill (PSSB) was last considered in the Dáil at Committee Stage in April 2017, but it lapsed when the Dáil was dissolved in January 2020 in advance of the last General Election.
In the subsequent Programme for Government we committed to “reform and consolidate the Ethics in Public Office legislation”. However, instead of restoring the PSSB to the Dáil Order Paper, I asked my Department to undertake a review of the statutory framework in advance of bringing new proposals for reform back to Government. In this, my intention was to take account of any developments since the PSSB was last considered in the Dáil, such as, for example, further potential gaps in the ethics framework that have arisen as matters of public debate, as well as relevant recommendations of the Review of Structures and Strategies to Prevent, Investigate and Penalise Economic Crime and Corruption (the ‘Hamilton Report’), which was published in December 2020.
The Ethics Review has been underway since September last, and I expect that the process will be completed by the end of June. The Review's outcome will then inform proposals for legislative reform that I intend to bring to Government later in 2022. In developing these fresh proposals, my Department will take as its point of departure the policy approach that was developed for the PSSB, given that it represents best practice on a number of fronts, and addresses many of the long-standing recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and the Standards in Public Office Commission for reform of Ireland's statutory framework for standards in public life.
