Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for their contributions and amendments and I understand their concerns. The idea is that the Government will set out a number of designated public officials that will be captured from the outset. These include Ministers of the Government and Ministers of State, Members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, Members of the European Parliament for constituencies in the State, members of local authorities, special advisers appointed under section 11 of the Public Service Management Act and then, in the point on which Senator Norris and others have focused, public servants of a prescribed description. That deliberately is a catch-all phrase because no matter what list I put down today, people would have suggested there was another category I should have included.

For example, if one takes the grade of assistant secretary, there is an entire range of analogous grades of assistant secretary across the public service, some of which are of a technical nature, such as chief medical officers and a variety of other assistant secretary level grades. However, they do not lend themselves to being listed in one exhaustive item of primary legislation. That is the sort of thing that normally is done by secondary legislation, that is, by statutory instrument, and that is what I wish to do.

In my opening statement, I already have indicated to Members that from the outset, I intend that Secretaries General, assistant secretaries and equivalent grades be captured, as well as analogous grades in the local authorities, including chief executive officers of local authorities. Within 12 months, I intend to bring in principal officers and then we will have a debate to decide on what other suitable categories should be brought in. This is designed not to try to be exhaustive from the beginning but to be enabling of a gradual broadening, while capturing from the beginning the key set of policy-formers both, as Senator Norris described, in the transient Government and the permanent government, in so far as possible. However, other grades may occur to us that would not occur to us as being particularly high-profile but which may be quite influential and which should be subject to designation under the legislation.

I did not answer Senator Byrne's question on the communications message, which is very important. This morning, I launched the StateBoards.iewebsite at which, I do not think he will mind me mentioning it, I had a private discussion with the Ombudsman on the operation of this legislation. A huge amount of work already is under way with my officials and the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPOC, in the preparation of this measure because part of the job of the SIPOC will be the communication of this legislation to people. Many changes have been and are being brought about in respect of freedom of information, lobbying and so on that must be communicated to people now and Senator Byrne makes valid points. We will have a communication strategy and SIPOC will be given responsibility to ensure that people are aware of the new responsibilities once this measure becomes law of the land.