A COMMITMENT to "restore confidence in public life through a credible policing mechanism for ethical issues" is one of the key priorities listed by Fianna Fail and the PDs. They also promise to apply "similar provisions to those of the Ethics in Public Office Act to local authorities".
The general nature of the first commitment covers an undertaking given last year by Mr Bertie Ahern to set up a Public Ethics Commission when the Buchanan inquiry began its investigation into rumours of payments to Mr Charles Haughey.
At the time, the Electoral Act - which provides for the establishment of a Public Offices Commission to oversee the operation of both the Electoral Act and the Ethics in Public Office Act - had not been enacted.
In its election manifesto, however, Fianna Fail promised to replace those structures with a Public Ethics Commission. The new body would "be charged with the task of examining any allegations of impropriety or ethical breaches or any reports of such allegations. Most importantly, the commission will be empowered to receive complaints from members of the public regarding office-holders," the document said.
It is not certain if the parties will embrace the recommendation of an all-party Oireachtas committee which suggested last May that there should be provision in the Constitution for a single commission, to be called the Electoral and Ethics Commission.
Its functions would include: the regulation of the funding and conduct of referendums; the existing functions of the Public Offices Commission; and the oversight of revision of constituency boundaries.