Mary White (Fianna Fail)

The contributions of Senators Cox, Dardis and Quinn were very interesting. As Senator Cox said, the public has a problem with politicians. If one says one is a politician, it is presumed one is up to something and one is not 100% honest. However, based on my experience as a business person, one is either honest or one is not. Senator Dardis has already stated that one either plays it straight or does not. From my own experience, as human beings we must every day practise and discipline ourselves so we can have a standard of ethics and honesty.

With my own company I used to put the young people I employed on the straight and narrow, telling them not to take anything not belonging to them. If they asked, it may be given to them. This was particularly true as chocolates were so tasty.

When being elected to the Houses of the Oireachtas, the people, our electorate, place great faith in us. We are here to represent the people and be accountable to them. Being elected places great responsibility on us to behave and be seen to behave in a way that respects the people and this House.

The Bill before us is a start. It specifies the amount which relevant people, such as Deputies, Senators and Ministers, may receive from friends for personal reasons before the opinion of the Standards in Public Office Commission must be sought. The Bill clarifies the mechanisms by which a recipient must declare and return donations when necessary, that is, when the Standards in Public Office Commission cannot state that accepting it would not be likely to influence him or her in the performance of his or her official duties.

I am especially pleased to see there are a number of ways in which the commission may ensure that an unacceptable donation may be reimbursed. For example, if the donor will not take the donation back, the recipient must give it to the Secretary General to the Government. If the donation was not financial in character and the donor will not accept reimbursement, the recipient must pay an amount to the value of the donation to the Secretary General to the Government.

This provides strong direction to recipients as to how they should proceed when they have received a donation from friends for personal reasons only. This is to be heartily welcomed. We should be grateful for this legislation as it clarifies the matter for us and may help us confront the media and public citizens. As the Minister stated in his speech, this Bill gives us an opportunity to reinforce the integrity of public life in Ireland.