The one positive to be taken from these weeks of turmoil engulfing Fine Gael, the Taoiseach, the Seanad and Imma is a hope, however distant, that the importance of ethical behaviour may be sinking in.

Over the past year, many in the Government appear to have focused almost exclusively on improving the economy, losing sight of the importance of how they do their business. Perhaps assuming that once the numbers are delivered citizens will remain apathetic and issues will “blow over”.

For many years, journalists, academics and members of the public have bemoaned the ethical standards underpinning our political culture. The reasons are myriad: a newish small State, a distrust of the centre, an affiliation with the underdog and localism.

The current Government surfed into office in 2011 on a wave of good intentions promising a democratic revolution. There would be a new politics, an end to the jobs for the boys, the cronyism and the corruption that had so long bedevilled us. But of course promises can be hard to keep and as we now know we have some distance to travel before our culture of political entitlement is replaced with a culture of integrity.

To give some credit, there have been some attempts at reform, principally from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, yet almost all changes which would dilute the power of the centre and of the executive have been left untouched or in some instances consolidated further.

Perhaps one of the greatest traditional vestiges of political power is in cronyism and patronage. Societies all over the world have grappled with the potential for abuse inherent in the power of appointment and of allocating resources. Here the days when a TD could secure jobs for constituents are in the past but there are still literally hundreds of jobs on State boards. Despite long-standing promises of reform it is only this week that we have seen a commitment that all jobs will be advertised publicly. Proposals will only be clear in six weeks’ time.

Problems of patronage

The problem of patronage in terms of ministers diverting funds to their own constituencies in areas such as health, sports facilities, roads and schools is also a long-standing issue. This practice was rife under the last administration but there are indications that it continues at least in some areas, best exemplified perhaps by the former minister for health’s “logistical logarithmic regressions” to explain large-scale funding allocated to his own constituency.

More generally, money matters – and nowhere more so than in political financing. Here again there have been some improvements, in terms of transparency, but nonetheless the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) is relatively toothless, while its proposals to ensure the main parties accounted for up to €1 million in funding held locally were hobbled by former minister for the environment Phil Hogan. As a result there is almost no clarity around party finances at a local level, and separately very little around funding of referendum campaigns. The question of influence, and who wields it is also critical. Here some good work has begun, including a very welcome whistleblowers’ charter, the Registration of Lobbying Bill cleared the second stage this week and the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI), crucially with the removal of upfront application fees, was passed by the Seanad this week.

Lobbying and FOI speak to power at the centre and both of these Bills were subject to intense lobbying, so it is a credit that they were delivered. But there is still much room for improvement in dealing transparently with vested interests which are a thorny problem in small country such as Ireland. Further, despite promises there is little that has been done to tackle the so-called “revolving door’ where former ministers and senior civil servants can leave office one month and become paid lobbyists the next. But it is easy to set out the problems. The solutions may be more difficult. We can think of them as three legs of a stool. First we need the legislation, or the regulation. An Ethics Bill which is due to replace the Byzantine intricacies of the current ethics laws is long promised. The heads of the Bill are expected before this Christmas and it has to be hoped that this is accorded a high enough priority that it passes next year.

Simply legislating is not enough, and certainly will not affect culture on its own. Secondly, we need to have a powerful office dedicated to ensuring a culture of integrity. A revamped Sipo and an electoral commission, both long promised, are obvious first moves here. Transparency International Ireland is currently examining the whole area of integrity in how public decisions are made, with a report and recommendations due next month.

The third and perhaps the biggest plank of reform is educational. As the Mahon tribunal observed: “if morality and ethics are not a priority for the electorate then they will not be a priority for its representatives.

Dangers of corruption

Public education has an important role to play in reminding the public of the dangers of corruption and the importance of combating it.” We also need training of civil servants who should be reminded that while they must sign the Official Secrets Act they also have a duty to act ethically in the public interest.

The Government may have decided “it’s the economy stupid”, but as the crisis these past weeks shows, the public may have moved ahead of them. It is not just the economy but transparency and ethical dealings which are also required. For the first time since it took office the current administration is no doubt looking forward to the budget, even if only to get ethics off the front page. We can only hope that they remain in play.

Dr Jane Suiter is a political scientist and lecturer at the school of communication at Dublin City University. She was deputy research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention