Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Government recognises the need for robust regulation and enforcement when it comes to tackling corrupt behaviour. We have overhauled regulation of the financial services sector, the corporate sector and the public sector. A major programme of legislation, including the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013, the Companies Act 2014, the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012, the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 and the Criminal Justice Act 2011 has been enacted. Deputies have pointed to the need to do more to implement the recommendations made by various tribunals and the Standards in Public Office Commission. There is no dispute on this. The Government knows that there is more to be done, and it is taking action.

Three Bills are due for publication shortly which will implement those outstanding recommendations. They are the public sector standards Bill, the planning and development (amendment) (No. 2) Bill and the criminal justice (corruption) Bill. All three will be coming before Government for approval to publish in the coming days and weeks. A Bill which will establish the office of the planning regulator, OPR, will be brought to Government by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government next week. Under the provisions of the Bill, the office will be fully independent of the Department, responsible for the independent assessment of all local authority and regional assembly forward planning, including zoning decisions of local authority members in local area and development plans, to ensure compliance with relevant national and regional policy, empowered to review the organisation, systems and procedures used by any planning authority or An Bord Pleanála in the performance of any of their planning functions under the planning Acts, including possible risks of corruption and on foot of individual complaints from members of the public, and required to undertake research, education and public information programmes to highlight the role and benefit of planning. The Government's aim is to ensure proper oversight of planning authorities that will ensure public confidence in the delivery of quality outcomes in planning decisions. Establishment of the OPR will ensure zoning decisions will continue to be scrutinised but in a new and independent manner, separate from the Minister's Department, where that function currently resides.

The public sector standards Bill will deliver comprehensive reform, streamlining provisions at local and national level and ensuring greater consistency in ethics legislation across the public sector. The Bill will significantly enhance the framework for identifying, disclosing and managing conflicts of interest as well as minimising corruption risks. It will replace the Standards in Public Office Commission with a single public sector standards commissioner with increased powers. The deputy commissioner, who will be independent in terms of the investigations functions, will implement improved complaints and investigations procedures. The commissioner will have stronger powers of sanction and enforcement as well as a role in the provision of advice and guidance. All public officials will have to disclose as a matter of routine actual and potential conflicts of interest that arise in the context of the performance of their duties. The Bill significantly extends the personal and material scope of disclosures for public officials in line with Mahon tribunal recommendations, with common definitions applying at national and local level.

The corruption Bill will also be published in the coming weeks. It will clarify and strengthen the law criminalising corruption. It provides penalties of up to ten years' imprisonment and unlimited fines for persons convicted on indictment. Courts are to be given new powers to remove certain public officials from office upon conviction. The Bill will implement Mahon tribunal recommendations for a new offence of making payments knowingly or recklessly to a third party who intends to use them as bribes, and for a new offence of using confidential information to obtain an advantage corruptly. The Bill will contain presumptions of corruption: where a person with an interest in the functions of a public official makes a payment to the official or a close relative, where a public official fails to declare interests as required by ethics legislation, and where a public official accepts a gift in breach of ethics codes.

The proposal to establish an anti-corruption agency is clearly well motivated. What is proposed is the merger of a range of existing agencies with wide and varying responsibilities, functions and powers. It is not clear how the amalgamation would enhance the capacity of the State to fight corruption without having adverse consequences for the existing functions of those agencies. We also need to acknowledge the strong co-operation that currently takes place between agencies. For example, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation already works closely with other bodies, including the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Central Bank, the Revenue Commissioners and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Indeed, a number of gardaí are seconded to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement. Recent convictions for breaches of the Companies Acts were made possible by that co-operation. I remind the House, however, that the Taoiseach has asked his officials to assess how the regulatory, investigatory and enforcement framework can be improved.

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