Locations
On 23 December 2015, The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin, published the Public Sector Standards Bill 2015. The publishing of this Bill addresses the commitment in the updated Programme for Government to publish legislation to consolidate local and national ethics requirements and give effect to the recommendations of the Tribunals.
The aim of this important piece of legislation is to provide a robust and effective framework for identifying, disclosing and managing conflicts of interest and to provide a consistent approach to ethics legislation across the public sector in line with international best practices.
Some of the key reforms introduced in the bill include:-
- The introduction of a Public Sector Standards Commissioner to replace the Standards in Public Office Commission and to oversee a reformed complaints and investigations process;
- The establishment in legislation of a set of integrity principles for all public officials;
- The strengthening of the legal obligation for public officials to disclose, as a matter of routine, actual and potential conflicts of interest, reinforced by a significant extension of the personal and material scope of disclosures for public officials and graduated disclosure requirements;
- The establishment of a more effective (IT-based) process for the submission of periodic statements of interests;
- The imposition of statutory prohibitions on the use of insider information, on the seeking by public officials of benefits to further their private interests, and on local elected representatives from dealing professionally with land in certain circumstances; and
- The establishment of a new statutory board to address potential conflicts of interest as public officials take up roles in the private sector.
This legislation will be integral to the quality and efficacy of public governance and the addressing of corruption risks.
Further updates in relation to the Bill will follow.