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

Perhaps the legal service needs to be beefed up next time. I have heard the Minister make that reference recently also, but in my experience it has never been available to assist us. It tends to state what a committee can or cannot do, including in guiding the banking inquiry, inquiries by the Committee of Public Accounts, or where we receive something from a whistleblower. It seems to give advice on compliance with existing legislation and how to defend it if the Committee of Public Accounts is before the court in the case of some witnesses. It gives advice of that nature, but, to my knowledge, it never gives us advice on legislation, although I stand to be corrected.

Schedule A.12 states any other person holding an office or other position is to give their reports to the prescribed person, whoever that will be. That phrase is used in the last line of all of the Schedules.

The section on public officials in category C may affect some Members of the House. A person who is a member of a committee, joint committee or a joint body of a local authority, other than a member of the local authority, should make ad hocdisclosures to the chief executive of the local authority. The Minister might advise Members on this provision, many of whom are members of joint policing committees in their local authority areas. I received the form from the council the other day, but I was told I did not need to fill it in because I was a member of a joint committee. I presume that is right, but somebody might clarify if that will continue to be the case. We want to prevent a situation where people in categories A, B and C for different aspects will receive a multiplicity of forms. We should check how many will end up receiving a multiplicity of forms in order to make the process simpler.

Everybody in the House will welcome the Bill. We will entrust whoever will be in the next Dáil with the responsibility of completing the legislation.

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