Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

No one can object to this harmless motion, although the Green Party may take some self-satisfaction and a warm glow from its decision to address the issue of ethics in public office. One does not need to refer to Gazprom or former European commissioners to discover what is wrong with corporate governance in this country. One needs only look at the boards of CIE and some of the banks to see lads looking after themselves. As a party in government, the Green Party could actively address issues of that nature.

We have an excellent Civil Service in which corruption is at a low level and which is fair in its dealings with everybody. While instances of abuse of power occur, they are infrequent. Conflicts of interest will always arise and some of the worst abuses in recent years have not been by civil servants but by former officeholders and civil servants moving into the private sector. The Green Party should have addressed issues of this nature in its motion. Confining its scope to the code of conduct for civil servants somehow implies that some senior members of the Civil Service are engaged in wrongdoing when this is clearly not the case. Civil servants are, as I indicated, extremely fair.

If the Green Party was genuinely concerned about issues of this nature, it could have taken a number of steps in the past couple of years. Transparency in government business is very important in reducing abuse of power, conflicts of interest and corruption. The Green Party, which was in Opposition at the time, railed against amendments made to the Freedom of Information Act. Now that it is in government, it could reverse these changes. I say this because I am annoyed about the hypocrisy evident in some of the statements made in this regard.

Whistleblower legislation could be applied to all Departments, State agencies and other bodies established at one remove from Ministers. The Green Party could support such legislation as a means of fostering accountability and transparency in the wider public service. It has not done so and whistleblower provisions have been introduced in a piecemeal manner in various Bills. The Green Party could demand the introduction of whistleblower's legislation and reversal of some of the amendments made to the Freedom of Information Act. Changes to the Act were not related to its operation but designed to keep things quiet and block journalists and Opposition parties from accessing information.

While the motion refers to the introduction of legislation on the code of conduct for civil servants, it does not indicate a timeframe or refer to potential complications or problems that must be overcome. It is, therefore, little more than window dressing. We deserve better and the Green Party should have taken a stronger line. Perhaps when Deputy Boyle responds to the debate, he will use stronger words and call for a reversal of changes in the freedom of information legislation and the introduction of a whistleblower's charter for everyone in the civil and public service. These steps would improve transparency and accountability and, in so doing, reduce corruption and conflicts of interest.

It is easy to accuse retiring public and civil servants who take up positions in the private sector that are similar in nature to their previous employment of a conflict of interest. If, however, we had greater transparency in the work of senior civil servants and Ministers, we would know whether decisions they made before leaving their positions could give rise to conflicts of interest in their new roles in the private sector.

The Minister of State's predecessor in the Office of Public Works seamlessly moved from handling the property portfolio of the State to handling the interests of the Construction Industry Federation. While one could argue that a conflict of interest arises in this connection, we, unlike the Minister of State who has access to the relevant files, have no idea whether any decisions taken by his predecessor conflict with his present role in the private sector. This problem would be overcome by introducing legislation to provide protection for whistleblowers who decide to highlight conflicts of interest. It would also enhance transparency and accountability in government. No action is being taken on this issue and both Government parties have voted to block initiatives in this area since the previous general election.

I ask the Green Party to consider introducing legislation that would address circumstances in which serious concerns are expressed to members of the Government and Opposition about the manner in which certain State and semi-State organisations and banks operate. Greater transparency would create public confidence that we are doing our absolute best to ensure the Government operates in a fair manner and corruption is kept to a minimum. One must be careful in this respect because I do not wish to imply that corruption is widespread in the civil or public service. That is clearly not the case and I have certainly not heard anything to suggest otherwise, even on the qt. We have an excellent public service. That does not mean we cannot give confidence to the people we represent that we are doing our best to ensure everything is transparent and everybody is accountable to them. These are the things the Government should try to achieve.

The issues raised by the Independent Senators in the House deserve further discussion. They are different from the motion but they deserve discussion because they are part of the problems we face at the moment. They deserve a motion of their own.