Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach in reply to the question about the code of conduct for office holders, told us that a review will be carried out in consultation with the Standards in Public Office Commission after the Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill has been enacted. The Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill has been around for a long time. The Taoiseach will recall that this Bill was first promised on 10 October 2006 by the then Tánaiste, former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Michael McDowell, in response to information that had come into the public domain to the effect that the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, had received dig-out money.

The purpose of the Bill was that where an office holder got a gift from a friend for personal purposes, he or she would seek advice from the Standards in Public Office Commission as to whether it was all right to accept the gift. The Bill in question was passed in the Seanad in 2007, and we have had neither sight nor light of it since. It has never come into this House. I have asked the Taoiseach about this before because I cannot understand why this is the case. There have been days here with little enough in the way of legislation from the Government to occupy the time. There have been occasions on which the House was adjourned due to a lack of legislative business, including yesterday.

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