Dr. Elaine Byrne:

This mediated corruption goes back to something that may be undue influence but not necessarily illegal. The trading in influence provision in the new corruption legislation seeks to regulate that. GRECO and various bodies looking at Ireland's governance framework for many years have been criticising the absence in our legislation of trading in influence. With that in mind I will quote the definition of "mediated corruption". I cannot recall the name of the author but it was in relation to the Keating Five. The gain that the politician sees is political, not personal, and it is not illegitimate in itself as in conventional corruption. How the public official views the benefit is improper, not necessarily the benefit itself or the fact that the particular citizen receives the benefit. The connection between the gain and the benefit is improper because it damages the democratic process, not because the public official provides the benefit with a corrupt motive. I guess this goes back to my experience of working in the United Nations anti-corruption unit where my boss used to say, just because a behaviour is not corrupt in the legal sense it might be morally corrupt. If one is advising somebody about their behaviour, one might be within the letter of the law but one might be outside the spirit of the law. For politicians the tide water mark of expectations is very high and often an unfair one. It is not just about what one is legally obliged to do but what is also morally expected of one.