Annual Report 2006

Complaints against office holders

Minister Micheál Martin TD

The Standards Commission received a complaint regarding a request by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin TD, to a civil servant in his Department to attend a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party to brief it on a Departmental report on the Groceries Order. The complainant considered that it was wholly inappropriate and unethical that a Minister of Government should request an official of a Department of State to attend at a party political meeting for the purposes of assisting the Minister in dealing with political issues.

Having considered the matter, the Standards Commission decided that it would not be appropriate to commence an investigation under the Ethics Acts. However, it wrote to Minister Martin and expressed its view that it was not appropriate for an office holder to request the attendance of a civil servant at a parliamentary party meeting and that his actions in this case were not in keeping with the spirit of the Code of Conduct for Office Holders. It accepted that it is important that legislators who are considering complex proposals be provided with all necessary explanations by officials who are familiar with the detail of such proposals, in order that they may be fully informed when performing their legislative functions. However, it considered that, in order to avoid any perception of a lack of impartiality by a civil servant in performing his or her official duties, where meetings are arranged to allow officials to provide detailed technical explanations, this facility should only be provided on an all-party basis to all members. In view of this, the Standards Commission reported on the matter to the Taoiseach in view of the role of the Government in drawing up the Code of Conduct for Office Holders. Further developments in this regard are reported on elsewhere in this Annual Report under 'Codes of Conduct'.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell TD and Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey TD

The Standards Commission received a complaint regarding Mr Ahern, Mr McDowell and Mr Dempsey arising from certain alleged statements and actions in connection with protests against the Shell Pipeline and onshore terminal in County Mayo. It was alleged that these statements and actions were in breach of provisions of the Code of Conduct for Office Holders. The complaint against Mr Ahern concerned comments by him, regarding the need to "enforce the rule of law", which were alleged to serve to provide political approval for the use of Garda violence. Mr McDowell and Mr Dempsey were alleged to have made public statements alleging Sinn Féin control of the Shell to Sea campaign, without providing any evidence to substantiate these claims. Mr McDowell was alleged to have given orders to the Gardaí to ban a protest at Ballinaboy on 10 November 2006 and to have abused his office in authorising breaches of fundamental rights by the Gardaí at that protest.

The Standards Commission considered the complaint in the light of the provisions of section 4 of the 2001 Act concerning 'specified acts' and of the Code of Conduct for Office Holders. It considered that the statements complained of constituted reasonable political comment. It did not consider that the actions complained of amounted in any case to a failure to have regard to or be guided by the Code of Conduct for Office Holders. It decided that there was no basis on which to proceed with the complaint.

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