Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

Section 15 of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956 provides for the imposition of disciplinary action in respect of civil servants. The Civil Service disciplinary code, which implements the 1956 Act, is set out in a Department of Finance circular. This is being revised in conjunction with the amendment of the 1956 Act. It will be negotiated with the Civil Service unions under the conciliation and arbitration scheme.

The code provides that an officer must be provided with a statement of the allegations made against him or her, all the evidence supporting those allegations and a statement of the proposed penalty if the allegations are substantiated. The officer is given an opportunity to respond to those allegations and may request a meeting with a personnel officer in order to discuss the case. Should the personnel officer subsequently decide that disciplinary action is appropriate, the officer may make written representations to the decision-making authority or request a review of the disciplinary proceedings by an appeals board prior to the imposition of the proposed sanction.

The appeals board comprises a senior counsel, a trade union representative and a Department of Finance representative. Appeals may be lodged on several grounds, including failure of the personnel officer to adhere to the disciplinary code, failure to ascertain all relevant facts of the case or to consider the facts in an unbiased fashion, failure to afford the officer reasonable facilities to answer the allegations against him or her or the punishment proposed is disproportionate to the offence committed.

Where the appeals board considers the case and finds that any of the grounds for appeal are substantiated, it may recommend that no further action be taken or that the personnel officer's recommendation to the decision-making authority should be amended in a specified manner, such as, for example, in terms of reducing the proposed penalty. Under section 15(5) of the 1956 Act and paragraph 3.7 of the disciplinary code, every officer is given the right to make representations to the appropriate authority before any disciplinary action is implemented.

I am confident that the new code will replicate the strong emphasis which is currently placed on the protection of the rights of the individual officer, particularly in respect to access to fair procedures. I consider the reference in these amendments to a civil servant's right to fair procedures is not required.

On Committee Stage, Deputy Burton stated that simply providing for officers to make representations to the appropriate authority without imposing upon it a requirement to have regard to those representations is not sufficient to satisfy natural justice dictates. She also stated that the legislation, if so drafted, would not meet reasonable constitutional tests. I have considered the Deputy's contention and, following consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, I cannot accept her reasoning.

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