Annual Report 2008

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, as passed by Seanad Éireann, 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 statutory declarations could be made and furnished within three months rather than made within one month and furnished within nine months as at present. The Standards Commission notes that the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 amends the deadline for the making of a statutory declaration by a person recommended for appointment to judicial office from one month to three
5. 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.
6. 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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