Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Regarding the buffer zone as it affects local authority officials, I understand the Taoiseach has not been on a local authority for a long time, if he ever was on one. I was a member of a local authority for some time. I wonder whether the Taoiseach realises why the timeframe needs to be more than a few months. I have examples of this that I can give him. A planning official may be involved in a variation proposal, a local area plan proposal or a development plan review, which naturally through its course takes approximately a year from variation to rezoning to LAP. We cannot allow the poacher to turn gamekeeper whereby the planning official for a particular project might end up working as a consultant for one of the developers or landowners. It is particularly important for planning officials that it is not a tokenistic few months. It needs to be a reasonable time of at least a year and a half or two years. Does the Taoiseach understand there is a particular issue regarding planning officials that might not be the case for Ministers of State, for example?

What is the current code of conduct for Ministers who receive official gifts from representatives of other governments in their capacity as Ministers, in particular when those gifts come from regimes that violate human rights or are undemocratic? Is there any particular code of conduct relating to the receipt of gifts by Ministers from dictators, torturers or murderers?

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