Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 23, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following: “(ba) the Commissioner has breached section 37 of this Act,”.

This relates to the declaration of interests. The amendment provides that one of the grounds on which a commissioner may be removed from office would be if he or she had breached section 37 of the Act. Section 37 relates to the disclosure of interests. We have had some very unfortunate examples, including quite recently, of board members who did not properly declare interests. While section 37 sets out the obligations regarding declaration of interests, we are simply suggesting that it should be clearly made one of the grounds on which a commissioner may be removed from office.

Amendment No. 45 refers to the same principle. Other Senators have spoken about the importance of trust in this commission. I believe Senator Malcolm Byrne spoke about the level of international scrutiny this commission will receive. Very large amounts of money are potentially at stake regarding the operation of this commission. Some of the wealthiest actors on the world stage may potentially be impacted by the decisions made by this commission. In that context it is very important that declaration of interest is not just there as a standard, but that there is very strong follow-through. We should not have the situations we have sometimes seen where people did not realise, did not quite properly declare, went out of the room for a minute and then came back in, or simply forgot about it. This is just to copper-fasten that as a ground for removal. It empowers the Government of the day in that regard.