Dr. Elaine Byrne:

If I may add, the Deputy's honesty in not knowing what the Standards in Public Office Commission does, even though he interacts with them every year, is replicated within the general public. I think that is the problem with all of the ethics framework that we have. It is a bit like Kissinger's phase, "Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?".

To whom do I go if I have a problem about ethics in Ireland? It might be one of the reasons whistleblowers have been going to Deputies. They might not know where to go. If one has difficulties, does one go to the Ombudsman, the standards commission or the local government ethics registrar? Most probably do not even know the latter exists.

One of the aims of the proposed Bill is to consolidate and streamline some of these measures. I have been arguing that, in Canada, for example, one goes to the ethics commissioner's website, where one will see quickly all of the declarations made by politicians and those in public office in one place. In Ireland, one can find some of their equivalent on the Oireachtas website, on the standards commission website and, possibly, on some of the local government websites, and it creates a difficulty for the public. It is also unfair to politics in Ireland generally, because in lots of ways political life has responded, but the public does not always see that because it is almost as though it is hidden away. That is one of the recommendations.

To return to what was stated about the office of the whistleblower, I do not know whether it should be located within the standards commission or elsewhere. I was arguing, along with the Ombudsman, that often our focus on ethics in public life is based on an argument in response to events that happened in the 1980s and 1990s, and instead of looking back to former recommendations, perhaps we should be looking internationally at what is being done in other jurisdictions. One of the measures that is being actively discussed as a response to the financial crisis and ethics in public life is the Office of the Whistleblower in the United States. In Australia, they are holding parliamentary hearings this week about setting up a similar initiative, and there has also been some discussion in the United Kingdom.