Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I draw particular attention to section 33(5) which requires that arrangements for implementing and adhering to the code of governance must be included in the authority's annual report and section 36(2)(e) requires that the annual report contains a report on the authority's arrangements for implementing and adhering to its code of governance. In addition, under section 33(4), the code will be publicly available. These provisions will further ensure HIQA's compliance with the code.

As regards the second amendment, that the code of governance should include a requirement on board members, staff etc. to disclose interests and avoid conflicts of interest, which would then be available through a register for public inspection, I will make a number of points which I hope will reassure the Deputy that the provisions in the Bill are adequate and appropriate.

The key point of the proposed amendment is to address conflicts of interest. The Minister stated in committee that she shared Deputy McManus's view on the importance of conflict of interest issues and in the past week has had this issue investigated further. It would perhaps be useful to set out the implications of the ethics Acts — the collective citation for the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995, the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 — and the authority. Under the ethics legislation, if a conflict of material interest exists the person concerned, if he or she is a person to whom the ethics legislation applies, must not perform the function and must disclose the interest. It is intended that board members and senior management of the authority will be subject to the Standards in Public Office Act 2001. In that regard, the interim HIQA is already a prescribed body under regulations made in 2005 for the purposes of the Ethics in Public Office Act and its chairperson, board members and chief executive are designated as designated directors and persons, respectively, for the purposes of these Acts.

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