Dr. Elaine Byrne:

I have not looked at it since I wrote it. In the archives I found a memorandum for the Government, which was about six or seven pages long. I remember sending it to him and we met afterwards. The tone of the language in that memorandum was so strong and exhibited very deep anger and frustration at the behaviour of politics and political parties in Ireland in the early to mid-1970s and proposals to address it. At the time there was the Poulson affair in the United Kingdom where similar issues had arisen. I will give one reform that he suggested, apart from introducing conflict of interest legislation under which councillors or TDs would have to declare, for instance, that not only were they politicians but that they were also directors of property companies or were being paid as consultants by property companies. He was critical of the Local Government Act 1946 which had repealed the 1898 order obliging local councillors to declare conflicts of interest. He drew attention to the Housing Act 1966 which had yet to be applied and the difficulties in providing for an offence under the outdated Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889.

He noted that no legislation whatsoever dealing directly with corruption and ethics had been introduced in Ireland since the British statutes.