Cabinet discusses how to act on recommendations

ANALYSIS:AT ITS Cabinet meeting yesterday, the Government discussed how to implement the recommendations of the planning tribunal in its final report. The discussion, not surprisingly, lasted a considerable time.

The Mahon report is gargantuan, running to more than 3,200 pages.

The chapter on recommendations alone takes up 220 pages. They cover the following areas: planning, conflicts of interest, political finance, lobbying, bribery, corruption in office, money laundering and asset confiscation, and end with a number of miscellaneous items including looking at the role of tribunals of inquiry.

Many of the recommendations echo and, indeed, overlap with those issued by the Moriarty tribunal last year. Both have urged major reform of ambivalent rules on political donation and conflicts of interest; the strengthening of sanctions and enforcement for breaches of ethics and electoral Acts; the introduction of a regulation for lobbyists; and new laws that will encourage whistleblowers to come forward.

In keeping with its status as a tribunal inquiring into planning irregularities, many of the Mahon report’s most potent recommendations are in this area.

The tribunal has welcomed changes in planning laws and processes since the corruption that bedevilled planning in the 1980s and 1990s. But it notes one of the effects of those changes has been to overcentralise power in the hands of the minister for the environment of the day.

The tribunal has also concluded that two controversial powers retained by councillors – to push through material contravention of a development plan and to overturn the decisions of planners – should be subject to new restrictions.

On political funding, the tribunal sets a very low bar for anonymous donations, saying no sum over €55 should be allowed to a politician, with €175 being the upper limit for a party.

Strict spending rules apply for the immediate period before an election, but not at any other time. The tribunal believes that period should be extended. As with Moriarty, it recommends the regulation of lobbyists and the introduction of a law protecting whistleblowers.

Yesterday, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said Ministers with responsibility for bringing forward recommendations had been asked to come back by the end of April with actions they proposed.

The Government has argued some of the major recommendations of Moriarty have been addressed, including reducing corporate donations, publishing draft whistleblower legislation, and starting the process to regulate lobbyists. The independence of the Revenue Commissioners has been placed on a statutory basis, and the Central Bank’s regulatory powers have been enhanced.

These represent only a fraction of the recommended reforms, and with Mahon, it’s even more problematic. There are dozens of major suggestions that will take years to make good on, if at all.