Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The motivation is that our current legislation in this area is deficient by international best practice standards in terms of the weight of power for the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, being mostly reactive. If we compare where we are currently versus the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal, for example, which called for more powers to be available to these bodies, we are different from other jurisdictions in this regard. I do not see any inconsistency between what the Deputy said, which is the continuation of the work SIPO does in terms of meeting members, explaining their requirements to them and, on occasion, helping them to be compliant while impartially implementing the law, and, as a last resort, giving it the power to initiate an investigation if it has reasonable grounds to believe that a public official is not compliant with the law.

I might look at the section before Report Stage with regard to a preliminary investigation because I believe many of Deputy Doherty's concerns could be dealt with at the preliminary inquiry stage. For example, if the commissioner forms a view on a matter as a result of a misunderstanding, a misapprehension or a concern that was ultimately found out not to be true, that can be dealt with at the preliminary stage as opposed to it being dealt with by a full inquiry. I want to be clear with colleagues. This is a change in terms of where we are at the moment. I will not understate it. It is a change, but I believe it is a change that is needed.