Government must drop plan for election ban for corrupt TDs

The Government has been told it cannot ban a TD convicted of corruption from running again for election to the Dáil.

Ministers will now have to abandon a previous plan to allow a court to ban any TD from standing for election within 10 years of a corruption conviction, following advice from the Attorney General’s office.

An earlier proposal would have allowed a court to strip a sitting TD of office if they were found guilty of corruption and to prohibit them from standing for the Dáil for a decade.

While the proposal extends to all holders of public office, the Attorney General’s advice in effect means a corrupt TD could lose his or her seat but could stand again in a subsequent election.

Prison sentence

The legal concerns centred on article 16 of the Constitution, which deals with membership of Dáil Éireann, and election laws setting out grounds for disqualifying someone from being a TD, for example a prison sentence of more than six months.

It was pointed out that since a TD convicted of offences such as manslaughter or rape would not be stopped from seeking re-election once released from prison, it would be difficult to treat someone found guilty of corruption differently.

A memo to be brought to Cabinet by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald says, however: "An important consideration here is that, where a person is convicted of corruption and subsequently stands for election to the Dáil, voters will . . . make their own judgment."