FIANNA Fail has promised to set up a US style public ethics commission to provide a legal basis for monitoring the integrity of politicians and public officials and to take action on complaints against them.
The party's chief whip, Mr Dermot Ahern, told a Dublin press conference yesterday that the commission would be "independently appointed and beaded by a high level public official, with the status of a High Court judge or the Ombudsman".
The commission would examine "any allegations of impropriety or ethical breaches or any reports of such allegations". Members of the public could go to the commission with any complaints they might have about office holders.
The commission would be modelled on similar bodies in a number of US states, notably Texas. In the US, the duties of such commissions include "the administration of laws governing personal financial disclosure and the conduct of state officers and employees, the registration of lobbyists and their activities, political contributions and expenditures and political advertising".
Mr Ahern said: "The public must be made aware of potential conflicts of interest which could in theory influence decisions to be made. There must be a mechanism in place to police the standards and enforce accountability. The standards must be tough and the mechanisms must have teeth.
"The public have the right to honest disclosure of any substantial private political contributions as defined in law. They also have the right to a transparency which ensures that politicians are not being compromised in any way in regulating business or legislating for the public interest.
"The public has a right to expect genuine integrity and decency from their representatives and we must all endeavour to fulfil that expectation."
He said the proposed commission would go further than the current Electoral Bill which allows only for the investigation of Ministers and other office holders: TDs can be investigated only by the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
He said Fianna Fail wants the commission to have the power to impose penalties such as exclusion from office, fines and even imprisonment, but admitted that this could cause a constitutional problem because of an individual's right to have recourse to the courts.
He said the Bill to set up such a commission could be referred to the Supreme Court for a ruling on its constitutionality.
Mr Ahern said the parties in the present Government "made a great show of openness, transparency and accountability before they took office. Their record in this regard has been abysmal. The Taoiseach's much vaunted pane of glass has become a brick wall."
He stressed his party's belief that "the vast majority of politicians are decent people. The occasional exception places a doubt in the minds of the public. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that confidence is restored in politicians and the political system".
Mr Ahern repeated Mr Bertie Ahern's pledge on the formulation of a code of practice on ethical standards to which all Fianna Fail parliamentary party members, now and in the future, would have to subscribe.
He warned that is was "the obligation of every politician to renew public faith in our political system". If parties did not put their proposals before the electorate and then implement them if returned to government, "the public will only see them as empty promises".