Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 22, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following:“(9) The Agency shall maintain a register of declared interests of all staff which will be publicly available including on the Agency’s website.”.

This amendment probably requires a little work but it is tabled as a matter for discussion. In my view the provision regarding disclosures of interests is appallingly weak. It is up to the individual or member of the agency themselves, and this amendment is supposed to be directed towards members of the agency, not all staff.

The member of the agency must identify the conflict of interest and it is up to him or her to raise it with the chairperson. Should the chairperson think there is a conflict of interest, it is up to the chairperson to ask another member of the agency if he or she thinks the person is conflicted in relation to the subject matter. Even if they do not do that and find they have contravened and are in breach under this section because they have influenced, taken a decision or been in the room when a decision was taken in relation to investment or otherwise, that must be reported to the Minister. The Minister may decide to remove the member from the agency. I think that is appallingly weak.

The investment committee is investing our money. It is pathetically weak that it would be up to a member of the investment committee in the course of the meeting to self-declare whether he or she feels conflicted. Even if they did not - and this would be wrong - which they would be doing wrong, if they did not admit to being conflicted, that they could still remain in the position as a result of the legislation. I believe that like every elected member in this room who must declare his or her interest in an open and transparent register of interests, although it has got its flaws because it only deals with assets and not liabilities, a member of the agency who is handling billions of euro of our funds should also have to declare his or her interests and complete an asset register or a register of declared interests.

This amendment calls for the agency to maintain a register of declared interests. Even when a member of the investment committee or of the agency declares an interest, and therefore has to withdraw and cannot partake in any meetings until that issue has been dealt with, it is recorded only in the minutes of the meeting. There is no register whatsoever. Unless one wants to scour the minutes of all the meetings, there is no register being kept by the agency of declared interests. I believe that those declared interests should be maintained by the agency and they should be available publicly for agency staff.