Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

These are obligations on individual Members of the House. It is up to those who are officeholders to discharge whatever requirements exist. They are submitted, as the Deputy knows, to the Clerk of the Dáil. They are also submitted, as appropriate, to the Standards in Public Office Commission. That is where they reside and that is where the records appear. These are matters all Deputies and officeholders have to comply with.

I am not aware of the individual issues that arise for Deputies in relation to complying with those requirements. They are statutory requirements for each individual Member to consider and comply with, and I understand this is what happens. If they do not, the Standards in Public Office Commission gets in touch with them about it.

Regarding the previous issue raised by Deputy Gilmore about the amounts, these are all matters of judgment. The threshold of €650 has not increased since the passage of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995, apart from being changed to take account of a convenient euro equivalent at the time of the currency changeover in 2002. The original figure under the 1995 Act was £500 and this was changed to €650, with effect from 1 January 2002. The thresholds set in the 1995 ethics Act was the first attempt to set thresholds in this area. It is by no means unreasonable for that first attempt to be reviewed 15 years later, in the light of experience, not to mention the need to counterbalance the effects of inflation eroding the original figure over the intervening years. The Bill, when enacted, will be setting this amount after 15 years not just for the present, but for the next period of years. Deputies will be able to make their view about thresholds known when the Bill is debated.

As Minister for Finance I consulted the Select Committee on Members' Interests of both Houses about the proposals in the Bill before it was published. The Seanad committee agreed with them while the Dáil committee welcomed the proposals, noting that they would further strengthen the accountability of Members of the Oireachtas.

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