Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As Deputy Varadkar said, it can arise that a county manager, director of planning or senior public servant is involved in a particular public project, retires and then starts to work for a tenderer for that project. I understood that the idea of the buffer zone was to have a period of time to allow the kind of turnover that would take place in that kind of case. I was surprised to hear that it is now considered to be some months in duration. With whom has this matter been discussed since the programme for Government was written? Have there been discussions with any of the associations representing senior public servants and bodies representing senior personnel at local government level, for example, to ascertain their views on what might be appropriate?

I also raise the issue of the change in the limits for gifts and the various thresholds for what is to be declared under the standards in public office rules. The original Ethics in Public Office Act contained a provision allowing the Minister to increase those thresholds in line with inflation. I do not think anybody would argue with that, but it seems that what is proposed in the Bill is considerably in excess of inflation. The threshold for interests from a remunerated trade or profession has increased from €2,600 to €5,000, shares increased from €13,000 to €20,000, land from €13,000 to €20,000 and gifts from €650 to €2,000. They are significantly ahead of inflation. Why is that being done, if the original idea was to keep it in line with inflation? Why are the thresholds being increased significantly ahead of inflation?

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