Great parliamentarians of the past would be "turning in their graves" at the failure of ministers to accept political responsibility for their departments, former ombudsman Kevin Murphy said today.
Speaking at the announcement of a democracy audit carried out by the think-tank Tasc, Mr Murphy referred to the illegal nursing home charges as an example of government ducking its responsibility.
"I am appalled that after over 80 years of parliamentary democracy, the Joint Committee on Health and Children could say in a report on people in long term residential care, and I quote: ‘There is an urgent need to clarify the responsibilities of ministers and the extent to which they can reasonably be held accountable for the actions of the department and agencies under their charge’.
"I think the great parliamentarians of the past will be turning if not squirming in their graves," Mr Murphy said.
Governments cannot account for the indiscretions of individual staff but according to Article 28.4.2 of the Constitution, the Cabinet must collective responsibility for "corporate failures" in departments of State, he said.
Matters in a minister’s control not discussed at Cabinet are the sole responsibility of that minister, but the Government must decide how the responsibility is discharged, he added.
Tasc (Think-tank for Action and Social Change) adopted an internationally developed methodology used in other countries aimed at assessing the 'quality' of democracy in a State.
The findings, Public Perspectives on Democracy in Ireland, also found:
- overwhelming support for the enforcement of social and employment-related rights
- a belief that women's role in society has improved in the past five years
- a strong belief in a duty to vote
- strong level of belief in an individual's power to influence political decisions
- the media has the ability to hold government accountable
- a majority believing the declining power of the Catholic Church to be a negative aspect a generally positive change in Irish society
- ambivalence towards the law
The audit concluded there was “a high degree of consensus” around attitudes to democracy.
“The variations in response according to age, social class, gender and level of education do not reveal any great fault lines. . . . The most surprising variation is the higher level of ambivalence towards the law among third-level graduates than for the rest of the population.”