The Standards in Public Office Commission has expressed "serious concern" about the continuing delay by the Minister for Finance in changing regulations to ensure public bodies are governed by ethics legislation.
The commission's 2003 annual report published yesterday says that 113 public bodies were listed in regulations made in 1997 as being covered by the Ethics Act. However since then, some had been privatised or merged while new bodies had been established.
Bodies which are not covered because their names have changed include Bord Fáilte and CERT (now merged into Fáilte Ireland), the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (formerly the Custom House Docks Development Board) and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (formerly the Independent Radio and Television Commission).
New bodies not covered include the Rail Procurement Agency, the National Treasury Management Association, Horse Racing Ireland and the Food Safety Authority. "This causes difficulties for the Standards Commission and is a demonstrable inequity in the treatment of public bodies insofar as the scope of the Ethics Act is concerned," the report says.
It understands that over 250 bodies may be brought under the scope of the Act when the regulations are amended.
In his introduction to the report, the chairman of the commission, Mr Justice Matthew P. Smith, calls for high standards of compliance with the ethics and electoral legislation. His remarks are seen as a reference to a number of incidents, including those in which the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, used Government facilities and staff to prepare briefing packs for Fianna Fáil election campaigners and Minister of State Mr Frank Fahey sent invitations to an election fund-raiser using Government-headed notepaper.
In each case, Fianna Fáil agreed to repay the cost of these facilities after the commission became involved.
The Standards in Public Office Commission also believes it should have the power to investigate and report on the veracity of tax-clearance certificates supplied to it as required by current legislation.This should be done "when this is considered necessary in the light of information relating to a person's tax affairs which may become available after the documentation has been furnished."
It reports on the case of Mr Michael Collins TD, who provided a tax-clearance certificate as required, only for it to emerge that he had a bogus non-resident account in respect of which he had not paid tax. Since the period covered by the report, the commission began an investigation into Mr Collins's affairs but suspended it after the DPP warned that it could compromise his ability to decide to bring a prosecution against the deputy in the future.
The judge remarks: "Legislation on its own cannot guarantee that those who are decision-makers or who are otherwise in positions of influence will discharge their official functions in accordance with the principle that public office should not be used for private gain and that the wider public interest should always take precedence over other considerations such as family or business interests, electoral advantage etc.
"As the work of the tribunals continues, there is need for reassurance that events which are being investigated and information which is being revealed are confined to recent history and that resonances of same are not to be found in our current public administration."
Rebuilding trust in the institutions of the State should now be seen as an urgent priority, he adds.
The commission investigated cases of 19 TDs and 28 senators who contravened the legal requirement for them to provide tax-clearance certificates within nine months of their election. In all cases it determined these were technical breaches involving late submissions.
It says it is "satisfied with the level of compliance which had been achieved by members of the 29th Dáil and 22nd Seanad".