Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the proposal to appoint Mr. Justice Daniel O'Keeffe as chairperson of the Standards in Public Office Commission and the former Member, Mr. Jim O'Keeffe from Cork South-Central, as an ordinary member of the commission. I know Mr. Jim O'Keeffe as a man of absolute integrity and I think everybody will be happy with his appointment. I cannot speak personally about Mr. Justice Daniel O'Keeffe but his name does not spring to mind for any particular problem and, as a former High Court judge, I am sure he is a man of good repute.

The Standards in Public Office Commission currently deals with the ethics legislation, the Electoral Acts in regard to donations and the leaders' allowance, in respect of which legislation is forthcoming, and it will have a new role in auditing the allowances for Independent Members of both Houses. I do not think the public are fully aware that Independent Senators receive what is colloquially known as a leader's allowance. It was one of our best kept secrets but it will be dealt with under the new legislation, which we support.

It was reported recently that the commission wants access to all party records not just those of head offices. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has one role in this, while the Minister for Public, Expenditure and Reform has another. I understand certain branches of Fine Gael received €30,000 in donations in a particular year and that the money was kept in their accounts rather than going through head office. The commission has complained that it cannot get access to these accounts. Other parties in this House receive considerable amounts in funding from outside this State, including from across the ocean. I do not believe politics in Ireland should be paid for by people who are not resident here and on the register of voters in Ireland, irrespective of whether they are former friends in Russia or current friends in the United States. As a democracy, political parties should be funded by the people who live in Ireland. I take the black and white view that people from other continents should not fund what happens in this House. The fundamental principle is that people should be able to know who is providing funds to political parties.

Mr. Liam Kavanagh, Mr. Michael Smith and Mr. Jim Keeffe are former Members of this House. As such, they bring pragmatism and practical experience to the commission. Some of the members of the commission whom I met previously did not really realise what politics is like on the ground. They did not understand why we would put ourselves to all that trouble or allow constituents to contact us at the weekend. I am pleased, therefore, that a former politician is being appointed to bring practical experience to the commission.

However, I wish to raise something that the Minister appears to have overlooked. The chairperson of the commission and the ordinary member will be men. The Comptroller and Auditor General and the Ombudsman are men. The Clerk of the Seanad is a lady. I do not know who is representing the Clerk of the Dáil on the commission given that a vacancy currently exists for that position. If someone is temporarily filling that position, what mechanism was used to allow this to happen? Of the six members of the board as currently constituted, one at most is a woman. It is not gender balanced. I support the Minister's nominations but I ask him to think about this issue for future reference. We want to attract more women into public life but the body overseeing standards, ethics, donations and transparency in public life is male dominated. Perhaps it is an accident but I ask the Minister to consider the issue with a view to addressing it in some way in the future.

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