It’s a great country — if you’re a six-figure deputy on 90 days’ leave

IT IS utterly absurd. Having spent just 95 days in their place of employment since last September — about the equivalent of another man’s overtime — our TDs are reaching for the Factor 10.

They are taking another 90-day holiday to recover or, to put it another way, practically a day-off for every day worked.

It amounts to a peculiar perk.

The pressure of having to sign in for two-and-a-half days when the Dáil is actually sitting, which is rare enough, must be horrendous because, apart from the three- month holiday they are now on, they are forced also to take other long breaks.

Like a month at Christmas, a week for St Patrick’s Day, a fortnight at Easter and a mid-term break in October.

They were meant to take another week’s break for the June bank holiday, but this was cancelled because of the panic over the statutory rape case.

For working just over half the year, we pay them, or at least they pay themselves from our pockets, at least €100,000, with ministers getting considerably more and our Taoiseach collecting more than the British prime minister.

It’s a great country — for them especially as the Dáil resembles a travel agency with deputies from all sides jetting off to exotic corners of the world, all expenses paid.

In fact, they were so anxious to get out of the Dáil for their three-month holiday that some very important bills were rushed through at the last minute without the debate they deserved.

But there was time enough to slag each other off over the Labour-Fine Gael motion to censure the Government, resulting in what this newspaper described as “rowdy exchanges”.

For this we are paying them exorbitant salaries for working minimum hours — and that doesn’t include whenever they’re off junketing.

Among the things rushed through were five important bills, including the Defence Bill, the Defamation Bill and the Privacy Bill.

The latter two were originally promised in the Programme for Government in 2002, although changes were demanded long before then, so there was no need to rush them. Many people are afraid that the Defence Bill, which has now passed all Dáil stages, will compromise our traditional neutrality. But there was no adequate debate on any of them. Apart from those bills, important reports have also been put on the long finger. According to Tánaiste Mary Harney, the Barr report into the shooting by the gardaí of John Carthy six years ago will be released later this month, when the Dáil is closed down. The intention, she said, was to have a debate in the House “as soon as possible”.

Obviously, her sense of urgency means three months because that’s the length of time before the House resumes.

Talking about absurdities, the Standards in Public Office Commission, our anti-corruption watchdog, is peppered with them to the point where it is actually prevented from doing its job properly. It seems ludicrous that the State body which, among other things, monitors the conduct of public office-holders, is not allowed initiate its own inquiries. It can only act when it receives a complaint from a third party.

It could be surrounded by corruption but, strangely, it is debarred from doing anything about it unless it receives a complaint.

Even more amazing, and given the track record of a number of politicians in this country, any question of giving extended powers to the commission is at the whim of a politician, the Minister for Finance.

That is not, of course, to cast any aspersion whatsoever on the present holder of that office, Brian Cowen, but it is laughable that the commission is controlled by a politician, one of the species it is supposed to keep an eye on.

It doesn’t do a lot for public confidence, and the commission itself is far from happy with the way things are at present.

So much so that its chairman, Mr Justice Matthew Smith, in the commission’s annual report this week, made the point that it should be allowed appoint its own inquiry officers in cases where it wished to pursue a matter but had not received a complaint.

Because its work involves matters which are intrinsic to the public interest, it should be able logically to initiate its own inquiries and it should certainly not be beholden to any single minister — or Taoiseach, if he were the one — to get the powers it believes it needs.

But the current minister seems to know what is best for the public, a trait which is the common denominator of this Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition.

THIS is not the first time that the commission has demanded adequate powers to do its job properly. Mr Cowen is on record from last year to the effect that he was satisfied with the powers of the commission, stating that they were ample to meet public concerns.

His attitude did not satisfy the commission then, it does not satisfy the commission now, and it most definitely should not satisfy the public.

A year ago the commission expressed its disappointment at the minister’s response, stating that it would only use the desired powers in “the most exceptional circumstances”. At the moment it has had to suspend its investigation of Michael Collins, the Limerick West TD who in 2004 paid the Revenue Commissioners €130,000 in outstanding tax after being caught holding a bogus non-resident account.

In 2002 he had given the commission a tax clearance certificate, as all TDs are required to do, but his name appeared in Iris Oifigiúil, the Dáil’s official publication, in the following year as the holder of such an account.

The commission received a complaint about the matter and began its own investigations, but it suspended them in 2004 because the matter was in the hands of the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is still with his office without any indication when it will be finalised, which prompted the commission to comment: “The Standards Commission is concerned at the length of time this matter has been under consideration and urges that it be resolved without further delay”.

Without any comment on the outcome of the case, it is perfectly right to be concerned at the delay, as should the general public, and indeed Michael Collins, who cannot be too happy not knowing what he may face.

Yet, this is a good example of the dilemma faced by the commission. It could not have acted on its own against a sitting TD without a complaint having been brought, despite the fact that it is the Dáil ethics watchdog.

Having received a complaint and instigated an investigation, it was forced to suspend it because the matter was referred to the DPP.

No matter what way it turned, the commission was stymied — and our Finance Minister thinks this meets public concerns? Strange, too, that it should be under the control of the Finance Minister, who can dictate what kind of resources are put at its disposal — or not.

In any case, a commission which is responsible for the conduct of our elected representatives should not be controlled by one of them, but should be utterly independent, and seen to be so.