Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 10, to delete lines 33 to 39.

I made this point on Second Stage regarding the guidelines in respect of the operation of the legislation. Draft guidelines will be submitted by the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, to the Minister for his or her approval. We should trust the Standards in Public Office Commission to do this. We have an independent Standards in Public Office Commission, but on the other hand the Minister of the day is saying he wishes to approve its regulations. That is not right. Elsewhere in the legislation we are allowing the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to draw up regulations under the legislation. We should trust SIPO. The idea of having an ombudsman or independent commission while, at the same time, the Minister holds a rein on it to ensure he or she is happy with what it is doing is not right. We should remove the ministerial approval and trust SIPO. We are entrusting it to oversee the various legislative measures relating to standards in public office so we should trust it to draw up these guidelines without reference to the Minister. It is about the independence of SIPO, rather than it having to refer back to the Minister for approval.