Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. It is a private register of declared interests - a private, secret document that is being maintained by the agency. It is clearly written in the legislation that where there is a declaration in relation to a disclosure of certain interests by members of staff - there is process in terms of who adjudicates on that, for example, the chairman - and if the chairman believes they may have a conflict of interest, a nominated person would do that for them. In the event of a person failing to declare an interest, which would mean he or she would be in breach of the legislation and the law, he or she would not be removed from the agency. That drives a coach and four through the Minister of State's suggestion that the Ethics in Public Office Act provides for the holding of a private register and everything will be fine. It is set out in black and white in the legislation that the Minister has the power to remove a person from the agency, but a person who breaks the law and fails to disclose a conflict of interest - which means he or she would continue to participate and influence decisions - would not be automatically removed from the agency. We should get real about this. This sends out the wrong signal. It should be black or white. If one fails to disclose a conflict of interest, one should be off the board and that should be grounds for automatic dismissal. The Minister of State might enlighten us on the circumstances where it would be deemed to be appropriate for a member of the agency, who conceals from the rest of the staff a conflict of interest and is subsequently found out, to stay in his or her position. We are not talking about an agency that is pushing around a few €100 here and there; we are talking about billions of euro of the Irish State's money and major investments and decisions. I ask the Minister of State to inform the House of where he would see that situation arising.

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