Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I listened with interest to the comments of all Senators. Senator Twomey spoke about the whistleblower's charter and he is absolutely right. We need to look at the options that will stamp out corruption in our public service and in our society. It is an endless fight and there are many different ideas. Perhaps Senator Twomey and Fine Gael might support the Kenny report in future. It was produced a number of years ago.

My grandfather was a civil servant in the Department of Finance. He always said his greatest regret was that when the State was founded, we did not set it up in such a way that profits from the rezoning of land accrued to the State. It is never too late to deal with that. One of the greatest areas of corruption in this State is in respect of rezoning land. While land can be rezoned at the stroke of a pen and a person can become very wealthy simply as a result of a vote cast by a number of councillors, the potential for corruption exists. Whether this corruption exists on a wide-scale basis is open to investigation. I have seen instances where that is the case. They have been well documented. Perhaps Fine Gael members might look at the Kenny report. At a time when local authorities find it very difficult to finance the various facilities we all want to see, such as community centres, schools and so on, the profits from rezoning accruing to them would be a good way of doing business. It is a much better way of doing business than allowing a speculator to buy land, have it rezoned and put the money into his pocket.

I would like to respond to a couple of points made by Senator Ross. The programme for Government calls for the introduction of a register of lobbyists, including professional, corporate and non-governmental organisation lobbyists. This commitment is separate from this motion but it is relevant to the Senator's comments. Another commitment in the programme for Government states we will ensure all promotion in the public service is on the basis of merit, eliminating seniority as a determining factor in any public sector appointment. Senator Ross is right to make his points, but we sought to have them included in the programme for Government and they are.

I have seen situations where planners from a local authority would simply migrate to working for a developer with whom they had been doing business previously. I have seen instances of that. It is wrong and that is what this motion is about. If qualified planners working for local authorities decide to leave those authorities, they have a right to employment. It is possible that those planners can work for other local authorities or they can work outside the jurisdiction in which they had been working. There are many jobs in the State which these planners can do, using their expertise gained from previous employment. There is a problem, however, if a planner can leave the planning department of a local authority and then start working for one of the companies on which he or she was previously adjudicating. There is a major conflict of interest involved.

The Green Party agrees that Ministers, Senators, TDs and councillors should definitely be included in any legislation on public servants. The Local Government Act 2001 states it is duty of every employee and councillor to maintain proper standards of integrity, conduct and concern for the public interest. That is in the existing legislation, but the guidelines need to be sharpened up and the 12-month rule is a good one. There has been debate on whether 12 months is enough or whether a person should be allowed to work at any stage in particular positions when those positions relate to the Official Secrets Act.

I have seen councillors working with developers and speculators and then having land rezoned that belongs to the people with whom they are working. The councillors must declare to the council their conflict of interest in that regard. The danger is that their party colleagues or other councillors will end up rezoning their land. It is a difficult situation when a councillor's land is rezoned, but it does happen. I am not 100% sure how we can deal with that but we need to look at it.

The other issue that concerns me is when councillors set up companies to manage conferences. Many councillors and other politicians attend conferences, and councillors often supplement their income by claiming expenses for these conferences even though they often do not turn up to them. This area needs to be made transparent and while the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has reduced the amount of money spent on conferences, they should be properly regulated in an open fashion. The companies that run conferences should be properly registered.

The battle against the conflict of interest is an ongoing one. As Senator Ross said, it is difficult to pin much of it down because it is related to personal integrity. Nevertheless, we must bring in as many Bills as possible to limit it. I commend the motion and I commend Senator Boyle on bringing it forward.