Annual Report 2007

Summary of other proposed amendments to the Ethics Acts

1. Provision in regulations amending Section 5(2) of the 1995 Act requiring members to furnish statements of 'nil' interests to the Standards Commission rather than to the relevant Clerk to be made in primary legislation in order to remove any doubt as to its constitutionality (the Standards Commission notes that the Ethics in Public Office (Amendment) Bill 2007 contains a provision to this effect).
2. Provision that, where an elected member or an appointee to a senior office in a public body furnishes an application statement to the Standards Commission, which indicates that the person has applied to the Office of the Collector General for the issue to him or her of a tax clearance certificate and that a decision has not been made, that person shall be required to furnish a tax clearance certificate to the Standards Commission where such a certificate is subsequently issued to him or her.
3. Provision for the application by the Standards Commission of discretion as to whether an investigation is warranted into a contravention of the requirements on elected members and appointees to senior office to provide evidence of compliance with specified taxation legislation.
4. Amendments to the time limits within which statutory declarations, tax clearance certificates and application statements are to be made or issued and furnished to the Standards Commission - for example, tax clearance certificates could be issued and furnished to the Standards Commission within six months rather than nine months as at present and that statutory declarations could be made and furnished within three months rather than made within one month and furnished within nine months as at present.
5. Revision of the timescale for the taking of proceedings concerning possible offences regarding the making of false statutory declarations. The Standards Commission has noted that the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell, TD, announced Government approval in August 2006 to draft the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which would have included an amendment to the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 to revise the timescale for the taking of proceedings in such cases. The Bill was not published at the time of writing of this report.
6. Provision for the date of first assembly of the relevant House of the Oireachtas be used as the election date for the purposes of determining the time limits by which an elected member must make his or her statutory declaration and furnish to the Standards Commission a tax clearance certificate or an application statement.
7. The amendment of Section 24(2)(b)(ii) of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 to provide that a report by the Standards Commission concerning the contravention of the tax clearance provisions by an Attorney General who is not a member of the Oireachtas, and who subsequently complied, should be sent to both Houses of the Oireachtas rather than to 'the House' as is currently provided.

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