The Government\u2019s failure to bring in overdue reform of ethics legislation is undermining public confidence in politics, according to Social Democrats TD R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 2020 Programme for Government, there was a commitment given to reform and consolidate the ethics in public office legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, 14 months after the Government published a review of the existing legislation, we have yet to see the urgently needed proposals for reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I challenged the Minister for Public Reform on this unacceptable delay in the D\u00e1il today, he told me that the heads of the bill are being finalised and would be ready in a short number of months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very disappointing response from the minister. If you look at the legislative programme, the heads of the bill are not listed for priority drafting. Even when they are produced, the bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny and the various stages required before legislation is passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that there is less than a year, at most, before the next general election, there is not a hope in hell that our ethics legislation will be reformed during the lifetime of this Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 20 years, SIPO have been identifying the huge gaps in their powers. In their annual report every year, they highlight all of the areas where they simply do not have the powers they so desperately need to do their job.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany different areas in need of reform have been identified, not least the lobbying area and the seamless movement from politics to the lobbying industry we\u2019ve seen involving a number of Government ministers and former TDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to show the public that we are serious about ethics. The Government\u2019s failure to bring in this legislation with the urgency it deserves is undermining confidence in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 2, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Government\u2019s failure to bring in overdue reform of ethics legislation is undermining public confidence in politics, according to Social Democrats TD R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall. \u201cIn the 2020 Programme for Government, there was a commitment given to reform and consolidate the ethics in public office legislation. \u201cHowever, 14 months after the Government published a review of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,515,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-ethics","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n