Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

On the progress towards enactment of the Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill, such inquiries are best directed to the Minister for Finance whose Department has responsibility for this area. The Bill has completed all Stages in the Seanad. The taking of the Bill in this House is a matter for the Whips who arrange the business of the House. The House has been dealing with legislation on finance and other issues and this has taken priority over the Bill. It is not a question of not proceeding with it but rather a question of the Whips arranging time for when they would like to take it. It obviously will be the next session at the earliest. There is no withdrawal of the legislation in that sense and, having completed All Stages in the Seanad, as Deputy Gilmore noted, it can be debated further in this House. I take the point that the Bill has been on the Order Paper for a long time and we should try to complete it.

Regarding further guidelines on ministerial expenses - the issue of hospitality from State agencies, etc. - arising from the February 2009 report of the Committee of Public Accounts on the FÁS organisation, the Department of Finance issued revised foreign travel policy guidelines in 2009. These guidelines and the related amendments to the code of practice for the governance of State bodies took account of the recommendations on travel policy in the committee's report. The Minister for Finance wrote to his colleagues, including me, asking that the same principles, as set out in the foreign travel guidelines 2009, be observed by Ministers, Ministers of State and other officeholders when travelling abroad on official business.

The Department of Finance also noted the conclusion in the February report by the Committee of Public Accounts that FÁS should not have paid for airline tickets, for example, for civil servants or Ministers. The general practice has been that expenses relating to representational duties by a Minister or other officeholder on behalf of a State body are paid and accounted for by the body in question. In light of the committee's conclusions, this matter is under consideration by the Department of Finance and a final decision will be made in the context of a forthcoming second special report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on travel in the FÁS organisation and recommendations from the Committee of Public Accounts following its examination of the report.

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