Other European countries could soon be examining the State's efforts to combat corruption under a Council of Europe agreement backed by the Dail.

Introducing the agreement which established the "Group of States Against Corruption", the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said it was an important development in the international fight against corruption.

Participating countries would be regularly examined for compliance with anti-corruption obligations by a team selected from experts nominated by all the states involved.

"An evaluation will initially be based on answers to a questionnaire, but this may be followed by a visit by the investigating team to the state under examination," he said.

The examiners would draw up a report and could recommend improvements in domestic legislation or practice. If a state responded inadequately to any recommendations, the examiners could issue a public statement, Mr O'Donoghue added.

Fine Gael's justice spokesman, however, mocked the Government's approach. Mr Jim Higgins said that there were three Bills listed as promised legislation to deal with corruption and fraud, but none of them were a priority for this Dail session.

He claimed that "on the one hand we are setting ourselves up as monitors of the performances of other participating countries while at national level we stand well and truly indicted for our failure to put our own house in order".

Some 16 months after the Minister promised it there was no sign of the Prevention of Corruption Bill.

He said Ireland should be pushing for a European criminal assets bureau to go after the proceeds of crime no matter where in Europe criminals attempted to hide them.

Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said "grandiose international treaties and agreements serve no purpose if we do not have the legislative base to deal with issues that undermine public confidence in the fundamental institutions of State, including politics, banking and administration".

Mr Joe Higgins (Soc, Dublin West) said ordinary people would welcome any genuine moves to curb corruption in business, politics or any other area of life. He added however that there was no scrutiny of so-called legitimate political contributions. "In my view there is a massive potential and possibilities for corruption at this level."

Mr O'Donoghue rejected the Opposition's criticisms, however, and said there had never been a higher output of legislation from the Department of Justice than now.

He was particularly interested in dealing with white collar fraud and would be publishing the Criminal Justice (Fraud Offences) Bill before the end of the year.