Results 24,321-24,340 of 32,924 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

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

Paschal Donohoe: One can only do so much. The Bill has been in circulation for a year. I accept the point made by Deputy Calleary that he believes the amendments could have been circulated earlier. We will unsure that if there are further changes on Report Stage everyone will have them. There have been calls for quite a while for the measures. The Bill has been available for a period of time. I have...

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

Paschal Donohoe: That is exactly it. Let me clarify what we are referring to. It gives the deputy commissioner the power to appoint a member of staff.

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

Paschal Donohoe: I would expect that the overwhelming number of such officers would be members of staff. We are providing for the possibility that something could be the subject of an investigation that the commissioner might feel requires expertise that his or her organisation does not have. As I sit in front of the Deputies, I cannot think of such a circumstance. Something could happen in regard to a...

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

Paschal Donohoe: If we do that, we limit the latitude of the commissioner to investigate a matter if he or she deems it needs to be investigated. On reputational damage, such investigations would have to take place privately. Of course the commission would have to talk to people, and other people do talk. That will happen. We have just dealt with a section that made clear that oral hearings will not be...

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 think this is a point in regard to the deputy commissioner------

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

Paschal Donohoe: The point does not concern the deputy commissioner per se but the principle that the office of the commissioner can now initiate an investigation if it believes there are grounds. Under subsection 37(1), it is made clear that, and I quote, "The Deputy Commissioner shall appoint one or more suitable persons ... to perform the functions expressed by this Chapter .. one or more members of staff...

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

Paschal Donohoe: The motivation is that our current legislation in this area is deficient by international best practice standards in terms of the weight of power for the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, being mostly reactive. If we compare where we are currently versus the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal, for example, which called for more powers to be available to these bodies, we are...

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

Paschal Donohoe: We have submitted an amendment, which I think we dealt with, requiring that the commissioner lay a report in the Oireachtas Library. We dealt with that earlier this morning. It is section 31. I will consider what the Deputy has said about the detail it would contain but I believe it will end up being a matter for the commissioner. I will give an example of one circumstance I believe we...

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

Paschal Donohoe: We have laid out the requirement that the commissioner should update the Houses of the Oireachtas Library. Section 31(1) states, "The Commissioner shall, in each year, prepare a report on his or her activities in the previous year, and may prepare such other reports for the Minister (i) as the Minister requests ... or (ii) as, on the Commissioner's own initiative, from time to time as the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I accept the Deputy did not do that. However, something I believe we should reflect on is if we lay down in statute the number of investigations that have taken place, for example, it could have unintended consequences. That is all I am saying. We have changed the Bill to make it clear that the commissioner has to lay a report in the Oireachtas Library or, if he or she believes there is an...

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

Paschal Donohoe: This goes back to the earlier discussion we had-----

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

Paschal Donohoe: -----and the fact that ignorance is not a defence before the law, but this legislation is not yet law. In response to Deputy Calleary earlier, I committed to writing to local authority representative bodies, for example, to notify them of what is currently before the Oireachtas, which we will do. However, we are debating a point of principle, namely, whether this body should have the...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I take Deputy Sherlock's point. My contention, at present, is that a fair crack of the whip is given, to use the Deputy's own phrase. In the legislation, even when I provide to the committee a table that explains the differences, we are addressing a separate point. The separate point is a point of principle which Deputy D'Arcy is raising legitimately. I accept Deputy D'Arcy's need to...

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

Paschal Donohoe: We do. I draw the Chairman's attention to the preliminary inquiry stage, specifically section 35(5) and (6). Subsection (5) states, "Following the completion of a preliminary inquiry ... the authorised official shall prepare a report of the inquiry, outlining his or her opinion in relation to the complaint concerned and the reasons for that opinion and shall furnish the report to the...

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. 40:In page 48, to delete lines 20 to 30 and substitute the following:"(a) direct in writing the person, the subject of the investigation concerned, or any person information in whose possession would assist the investigation, to, as appropriate—(i) provide, by means of a statement prepared by the person for the purpose, information, or (ii) produce any document or...

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. 41:In page 49, to delete lines 14 to 32 and substitute the following:"(7) A person—(a) shall not fail or refuse to—(i) provide, by the means specified in subsection (2)(a), information, or (ii) produce any document or thing in his or her possession or power,to an investigation officer that is legally required under subsection (2)(a)to be provided or...

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. 42:In page 50, line 12, to delete "finds" and substitute "find".

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. 43:In page 50, line 17, to delete "finds" and substitute "find".

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. 44:In page 51, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:"(4) In deciding, under subsection (3), whether to accept a recommendation that it be found that a particular contravention has occurred (or, in a case falling within paragraph (c)(ii)of subsection (3), to accept the recommendation lastly mentioned in subsection (2)(b)) the Commissioner shall have special...

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

Paschal Donohoe: I will comment on section 39 to put on the record what we discussed a moment ago. Given the discussion we have just had, I have a duty to explain to the committee how the investigative procedure moves forward. Section 39 sets out the requirements of the deputy commissioner in preparing a report of the investigation and furnishing that to the commissioner. Subsection (1) provides that...