Government failed to act on 49 recommendations to improve electoral law, Sipo finds
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath’s department failed to act in any way on any of the key recommendations aimed at improving the transparency and accountability in Irish politics, the report states. File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos
Forty-nine recommendations to tighten up Ireland’s electoral law were not progressed in any way by the Government last year, the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) has stated.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath’s department failed to act in any way on any of the key recommendations aimed at improving the transparency and accountability in Irish politics, the report states.
In its annual report, Sipo said despite a Government review of ethics legislation, “major outstanding proposals” have failed to be acted upon, despite many of them being many years old.
Its top recommendation is that powers should be given to Sipo to appoint an officer to initiate investigations as opposed to having to wait for a complaint to be made.
In the section where it is asked what progress was made to address such a recommendation, the report states: “None."
Another Sipo demand that its annual report should be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and not given to the minister has also been ignored.
A call to introduce a code of conduct for public servants and members of State boards also fell on deaf ears, despite first being requested in 2003.
Interestingly, a demand from 2009 that liabilities or debts should be disclosed as material matters in the annual register of interests has also been ignored.
The Government has moved to establish an electoral commission but the bill, which was rushed through the Oireachtas two weeks ago, was found to be in breach of EU law.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has until later this month to rectify the bill or face legal proceedings from the EU Commission.
Comment has been sought from Mr McGrath’s department.
The Sipo annual report also showed election expenses of just over €7.3m were disclosed by candidates and political parties at the 2020 general election.
A total of 531 candidates contested the election. Some 319 election candidates qualified for reimbursement of their election expenses.
To qualify, a candidate must have been elected or received a certain percentage of the first-preference vote. The total certified for reimbursement to candidates to date is €2.5m.
No candidate exceeded the statutory expenditure limits, which differ according to the size of the constituency. Donations with a total value of €111,282 were disclosed by 64 unsuccessful candidates.
Some 147 candidates contested the Seanad 2020 general election and five candidates disclosed donations totalling €5,971.
The commission referred a number of possible contraventions of the Electoral Act 1997 to the Director of Public Prosecutions concerning non-compliance in respect of election expenses and donations.
The subjects of these referrals included the national agents of two political parties, Seanad election candidates, Dáil election candidates and election agents, Sipo said.
The Director of Public Prosecutions proceeded to prosecution with 30 cases in 2021, with nine cases remaining before the courts at year-end.
According to the report, the commission processed 127 complaints under the Ethics Acts and initiated four preliminary inquiries.
Of these, two were closed and five proceeded to investigations.
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