Combined Section 15/16 Manual of the Standards Commission

2.4 Glossary of terms relevant to Part 2 of the manual

Connected Person

Any question as to whether a person is connected with another shall be determined in accordance with the following provisions (a determination that one person is connected with another person means also that the other person is connected with the first-mentioned person):

1. a person is connected with an individual if that person is a relative of the individual ("relative", in relation to a person means a brother, sister, parent or spouse of the person or a child of the person or of the spouse;)
2. a person, in his or her capacity as a trustee of a trust, is connected with an individual who or any of whose children or as respects whom any body corporate which he or she controls is a beneficiary of the trust,
3. a person is connected with any person with whom he or she is in partnership,
4. a company is connected with another person if that person has control of it or if that person and persons connected with that person together have control of it,
5. any two or more persons acting together to secure or exercise control of a company shall be treated in relation to that company as connected with one another and with any person acting on the directions of any of them to secure or exercise control of the company;

Material Interest

A person or a connected person has a material interest in a matter if the consequence or effect

1. of the performance by the person of a function of his or her office, directorship, designated position, or position as special adviser, as the case may be, or
2. of any decision made in relation to or in the course or as a result of the performance of such a function by the person,

concerning that matter may be to confer on or withhold from the person or the connected person a significant benefit or impose on the person a significant loss, liability, penalty, forfeiture, punishment or other disadvantage without also conferring it on, withholding it from or imposing it on persons in general or a class of persons which is of significant size having regard to all the circumstances and of which the person or the connected person is a member.

Material Interest in the subject matter of proceedings in Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann

A member or a connected person has a material interest in the subject matter of proceedings if the consequence or effect of any decision by the House or the committee or joint committee concerned, or by the Government or an office holder, concerning that matter may be to confer on or withhold from the person a significant benefit without also conferring it on or withholding it from persons in general or a class of persons which is of significant size having regard to all the circumstances and of which the person is a member.

Relevant Authority

A person (or persons) in a public body prescribed by the Minister for Finance as the person(s) to whom an occupier of a designated positions in the public body furnishes his / her Statements of Interests.

 
Senior Office

senior office means -

1. a designated directorship of a public body specified in subparagraphs (8) to (12), or standing prescribed under subparagraph (13), of paragraph 1 of the First Schedule to the 1995 Act, or
2. a designated position in a public body,

in relation to which the remuneration is not less than the lowest remuneration in relation to the position of Deputy Secretary General in the Civil Service (within the meaning of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956).

Special Adviser

In accordance with section 19(1) of the 1995 Act a person who -

1. occupies or occupied an excluded position (within the meaning of the Civil Service Commissioners Act 1956) having been selected for appointment to that position by an office holder personally otherwise than by means of a competitive procedure, or
2. is or was employed under a contract for services by an office holder, having been selected for the award of the contract by an office holder personally otherwise than by means of a competitive procedure,

and whose function or principal function as such a person is or was to provide advice or other assistance to or for the office holder;

[A special adviser also includes a person appointed, by order of the Government, at the request of a Minister of the Government, pursuant to section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997.]

Specified Person

In accordance with section 4(6)(a) of the 2001 Act a specified person means a person who

1. is or, at the time to which a complaint relates was, is an Office Holder or the Attorney General (who is not a Member);
2. is or, at the time to which a complaint relates was, a special adviser, a designated director or the occupier of a designated position in a public body;
3. holds or occupies or, at the time to which a complaint relates held or occupied, a directorship or a position of employment in a public body.

Statement of Additional Interests

A declaration of any interests of a spouse, a child or a child of the spouse of which the Office Holder has actual knowledge that could materially influence the Office Holder in, or in relation to, the performance of the functions of his / her office.

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