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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Public Sector Standards Bill 2015 and I have listened carefully to the Minister's comments. As he has made clear, this matter was discussed as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill with the Oireachtas finance and public expenditure committee some time ago. There was a useful discussion in that respect and I hope our discussion on Second Stage will be taken into consideration in advance of Committee Stage.

Most people agree it is good to have this legislation, which effectively consolidates local and national ethics requirements into a single piece of legislation. In reading through my notes and the Bill itself, the first thought coming to mind was that if right was right, everything in it should be happening anyway. We should be just putting into legislation what would be good practice. I read about everything that needed to be done, with people declaring conflicts of interests etc., and I hope that a misinformed listener does not believe that this is not happening anyway and we are waiting for legislation to be enacted before it might come about. The tone is of a belt and braces approach to good practice that we all hope and expect is being complied with 100% in all cases, although human failures can come into the process. That is really what we are trying to tie down here. I hope most of this will not be an undue burden on people as they should be doing what is prescribed anyway. I know there are technicalities in the legislation but the spirit of the Bill and operating with ethics to the highest standard should be paramount in everybody's thinking in the public service, whether they are elected officials or other public servants.

Much of my comment relates to clarification rather than finding fault with the legislation. I would like issues to be teased out and perhaps we will all be here again in a few months on Committee Stage.

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