Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I know that today the Tánaiste will be feeling relieved that the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, has announced it will not be investigating his leak of a draft GP contract to one of his friends back in April 2019. In a statement last night, he said he had been cleared of "any breach of ethics or standards". I can understand why he said that, but it would be much more accurate to state that SIPO has decided that it does not have the authority to investigate this matter. SIPO noted that the Tánaiste had said his leak of the contract was done in his capacity as Taoiseach and it stated that it has no remit to inquire into "the extent of the powers of the office of Taoiseach". It also important to mention that was not a unanimous decision by SIPO. Two of the commissioners were of the view that they could investigate the Tánaiste and a sixth recused herself.

While the Tánaiste views this decision as good news for himself, it raises a number of very important questions. For a start, does SIPO have the power to investigate complaints about the actions of taoisigh at all or does the office of Taoiseach protect its inhabitants from scrutiny? It appears that if a Minister had opted to leak this document, there would have been a role for SIPO to at least examine it. As the Tánaiste was Taoiseach at the time, the majority view was that it could not look into it. That raises fundamental questions about the powers of SIPO and its ability or lack thereof to hold politicians to account. It is not the first time that those questions have been raised.

As the Tánaiste knows, the Social Democrats have long called on the Government to give the State's ethics watchdog some badly needed teeth. Most recently, the controversy surrounding Deputy Troy's failure to fully declare his property and business interests in the Oireachtas register of Members' interests revealed SIPO as more lapdog than watchdog. Deputy Troy resigned as Minister of State, but this was entirely discretionary. SIPO was unable to impose any sanctions on him for repeated breaches of ethics legislation because there are no penalties for failing to accurately complete the register on time. Of course, Deputy Troy is not the only Deputy or Senator to escape penalty because of the deficiencies in the legislation which effectively muzzles our watchdog. For nearly two decades SIPO has repeatedly called on successive governments to increase its power. Those pleas have always fallen on deaf ears

My questions are as follows. Is the Tánaiste satisfied that SIPO is sufficiently empowered to investigate the decisions of taoisigh when necessary? When can we look forward to amended ethics legislation being published that significantly enhances SIPO's powers of both investigation and enforcement?

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