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Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course. I can kick off with a few lines on each part of the Bill, starting with section 1. Is that how the Chairman would like me to proceed?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I will go through it section by section.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Perhaps I will then pause when we get to a section that has an amendment and I will explain that amendment.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: This section relates to the Short Title of the Bill. It lays out how the Bill is to be referred to and the period within which the Bill will be enacted. It states that it will come into operation within six months from the passing of the Bill or on an earlier day which the Minister may appoint by order. Section 2 is a defining section. It sets out the various definitions in place regarding...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: No, absolutely not.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I move amendment No. 1:In page 9, line 26, after “1997” to insert the following: “or, as the case may be, section 2(1) of the Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Act 1999”. Amendment No. 1, which I have tabled at the request of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, is to ensure that the definition of "donation"...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The reason we have agreed the grouping of these amendments in this way with the committee is because all of them refer to either changing a word or the drafting of the Bill. There is little in them that prompts any substantive change in the Bill.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: They have that at the moment under the local government legislation.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: One return. The Bill provides that if any public official believes he or she has received a donation, for example, or performed an act of some kind that is inconsistent with the implementation of this legislation, he or she must make what is called an ad hoc declaration. He or she has to inform the relevant body within a reasonable period of that happening. At the moment, it is done on a...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: It will mean that if a Member were to receive a donation or gift that was not consistent with the implementation of this legislation, he or she would have to declare it within a reasonable period of that happening. Members will not be able to declare such occurrences at the end of the year.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: The standards commissioner will have to draft a code of practice which can deal with that matter.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I would be happy to deal with a proposal in that regard on Report Stage. In essence, this Bill is looking to ensure that we have a standards commissioner with a higher level of power and oversight than is currently the case.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not know about engagement with representative bodies. This legislation went through the drafting process of a policy paper and has been available in the Oireachtas and in the public domain for almost a year. Up to this point, short of Deputy Calleary raising the issue, we have not received any communication from anybody who is looking to change it in respect of its application for...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: This is an unelected body. We are going to have a single person within the standards in public office body, who will be a standards commissioner. That office is unelected for good reason, which the Deputy is accepting. I accept that. We will ask that person to put together a code of practice. It is required in a different section of the Bill that he or she consult with stakeholders on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: It is actually the other way around. I can offer some explanation as to why the Deputy is saying that. At the moment, we have a board within the Standards in Public Office Commission. If a particular matter needs to be considered or action taken, the board has to be assembled. We are now vesting the power in this area in a single individual who is referred to in this Bill either as the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: That is mostly right, Chairman. The commission itself will be dissolved to deal with this issue of having to assemble a meeting to deal with a particular matter. Then the latter part of what the Chairman said is correct. We would then have a single individual, who will have a deputy, and they will be vested with the powers to implement this Bill.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: On the first question, the reason for that is that we are more compliant with what we believe to be international best practice the area. We have looked at work that has been done elsewhere, in particular work has been done by the OECD and the World Bank and they have looked at what best practice is in other jurisdictions. We have based our thinking in this area on what they have said that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Public Sector Standards Bill 2015: Committee Stage (6 Apr 2017)

Paschal Donohoe: It is consulting with the officials and the Minister. To date, and this may change as a result of this debate, neither I nor my Department has been approached directly by a local authority body expressing concern about the implementation of this.