The Government has approved the establishment of a body to investigate possible breaches in ethics by those holding public office.
Entitled the Standards in Public Office Commission, the body will effectively take over the role of inquiries such as the Flood and Moriarty tribunals. Its head will have the powers of a High Court judge, and the commission will act "like a permanent tribunal," according to a Government spokesman.
The initiative was discussed at yesterday's daylong Cabinet meeting, during which the outline of what will become the Standards in Public Office Bill (1998) were presented. The Government is seeking all-party support for the measure, which will be referred to the Dail Select Committee on Members' Interests before drafting. As proposed, the new body would subsume the Public Offices Commission, which in the past two weeks has published its first annual report on donations made to parties and individual members of the Oireachtas. It would also take over some matters at present dealt with by the Ombudsman.
The Government spokesman said the commission would have flexible staffing arrangements to reflect its workload at any given time. It would act by investigating complaints and allegations as they arose, he said, rather than waiting for political pressure to force the setting up of individual inquiries.
Fianna Fail proposed the appointment of an independent monitor of breaches in the Ethics Act during its evidence to the McCracken tribunal last year, and the proposal also featured in the party's election manifesto.
In his tribunal report, however, Mr Justice McCracken said he did not believe such a move was justified. He said the proposal was an "interesting" one, but recommended consideration be given to extending the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman instead.