Public ethics – Mystery funding

THE state’s ethics watchdog, in its annual report yesterday, reminded us that political parties spent millions on last year’s election but did not say where most of the money came from.

The Standards in Public Office Commission reported that between party HQ, Dáil deputies, senators, MEPs and unsuccessful candidates, Fianna Fáil recorded €661,523 in donations last year. The party spent €3,650,241 in the general election — a difference of €2,988,718 that remains unaccounted for.

Fianna Fáil is not alone. Fine Gael declared €191,095, but spent €2,809,474 — a difference of 2,618,379. Labour declared €152,084, yet spent €1,477,321. The PDs declared €15,879, yet spent €1,012,707

No matter how weary you are of tribunals and political mud slinging that’s a significant two fingers to the way we try to organise and safeguard our democracy.

As is the fact that public servants are not bound by any code of conduct — seven years after legislation was enacted on the issue. The six-person watchdog said it was very concerned that 80% of civil servants don’t have a code of conduct because parts of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 have not been implemented.

The implementation of this kind of legislation was the payoff for benchmarking but we’re still waiting.

More fool us for putting up with his kind of nonsense and deception.