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

Who knows? We will not go there with this one. The context of this Bill is addressing corruption risk through an appropriate disclosure of interest regime and the regulation of conflicts of interest, which is critical in maintaining trust in the reputation of public institutes. Trust is fairly high in Ireland and relative to other countries, we do not have a bad name. Perhaps the tribunals highlighted some very bad aspects but it is important to note they were the exceptions rather than the norm. Often the difficulty is that when there is an inquiry or tribunal, with the media picking up the highlighted aspects for headlines to be transmitted internationally, people might think it is what goes on in Ireland. They may forget that this is just one or two bad apples in the barrel. It is important to emphasise that we have a good reputation across the board.

This legislation deals with the provision and advice for the development of codes of conduct to be distributed among different bodies, and I will return to that later. The Minister covered some of the objectives of the Bill, although not precisely in the manner I will discuss. The Bill seeks a consistent, coherent and proportionate framework, which is important, as we can get bamboozled with forms. Public officials can also get bamboozled with such forms, and the senior officials in an organisation might be tasked with ensuring the task is done. When they land on the floor of a Department or local authority, it might be a case of "here he comes again, what is this all about now and what must we do?" The processes can be a little disproportionate and I hope people can be tolerant of personnel trying to implement these processes as part of a day's work.

It is interesting that we are replacing the Standards in Public Office Commission with a public sector standards commissioner. People might say it is just a name change but we are essentially broadening the remit of the work done by that commission, and the work will still need to be done. All Members of the House and people in other organisations will be familiar with that work. It is interesting that the commissioner will have stronger powers of sanction and enforcement with respect to a range of contraventions. The Bill will establish a more effective, streamlined and efficient process for the submission of periodic statements of interest. That is important as people may be in a job for a number of years while issues change, which means the original declaration may not tell the full story as time goes on. A periodic declaration is important for everybody.

When we come into the Dáil we have to produce a tax clearance certificate on entry and I have already applied for mine as part of the preparation for the election. I am sure the Revenue Commissioners will deal with that.

Anything could happen during the course of the five years but once you are clear on day one coming in the gate-----

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