Troy departure: Ireland’s ethics regime needs an overhaul, but will the watchdog get the powers it needs?

The resignation of Robert Troy as a minister of State on Wednesday night has led to calls for the strengthening of Ireland’s ethics regime for politicians and public figures.

On RTÉ on Thursday, John Devitt, the chief executive of Transparency Ireland, called for stronger sanctions for breaches of ethics laws and more powers for those who enforce them. His call was echoed by several Opposition politicians, including Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy.

But the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), the watchdog that polices ethics in public life, has been calling for additional powers since the 2000s. It has been consistently ignored by successive governments.

In its most recent annual report, published earlier this summer, the body noted that dozens of requests to tighten ethics and electoral laws had not been progressed over the course of the previous year.

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“As in previous years,” it noted, “the standards commission has included in its annual report a number of recommendations for legislative change to the Electoral Act 1997 and to the Ethics in Public Office Acts that remain outstanding at the time of publication.”

But that’s hardly a surprise. This is now something of a ritual in Sipo annual reports. The number one recommendation — that Sipo should have the power to initiate an investigation on its own initiative — was first made as far back as 2004.

[ Troy’s errors ‘an insult to the people who elected him’, locals say ]

The lack of an independent power to initiate an investigation for the breach of ethics laws means the watchdog is reliant on other people to bring potential wrongdoing to its attention before it can take action. This effectively means it depends on politicians, or vigilant members of the public or the media to bring breaches of the law to its attention. In that respect, it’s a watchdog that relies on someone else to do the barking.

Enforcement is, if not quite accidental, then certainly unpredictable. Troy looks like an exception

Although Sipo has recommended dozens of ways in which the ethics framework should be strengthened, Ireland has a comparatively comprehensive legal infrastructure, set up after the era of the tribunals, which governs politics and public life.

What it does not have, however, is an energetic regime of enforcement of the laws. The system relies on politicians and parties to observe the requirements of the law — but consequences when they do not are haphazard and unpredictable.

Enforcement is, if not quite accidental, then certainly unpredictable. Troy looks like an exception.

Reform of the system was proposed in a Bill tabled by Labour TD Brendan Howlin in 2015 but, despite being accepted in principle by the government at the time, it never made progress on to the statute books.

There were further calls for reform in the wake of the controversy surrounding the departure of Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy in 2019, when Sipo confirmed that it had no powers to investigate former members of the Dáil or office holders — only current ones.

Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath commenced a review of ethics legislation last year with a view towards introducing legislation during the lifetime of this Government. The terms of reference for the review mention the findings of past tribunals, but also explicitly state that it will take account of the experience of Sipo in implementing ethics legislation.

The programme for government contains a pledge to “reform and consolidate” the law on ethics in public life.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Expenditure said the review would be completed shortly, and proposals for new legislation would be brought forward by McGrath.

There was, however, no indication as to whether the review would recommend the changes that Sipo itself has sought.