PRIVATE BILL TO BE MOVED

There is an urgent need to amend current legislation a governing acceptance of gifts and loans by Government Ministers if public confidence in politics was not to be further eroded.

This was stated by Independent TD Marian Harkin when she announced the she is to bring forward amendments to the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995, 2001 through the mechanism of a private bill.

“I am greatly concerned that current legislation permits the acceptance of high value gifts, loans or services by An Taoiseach and Ministers and this is causing a further erosion of public confidence in politics”, she said.  It was against this background that she had decided to ask the Oireachtas to make the changes necessary to ensure that no Taoiseach or Minister could in the future accept substantial gifts or loans, she said.

Provision could be made in amended legislation for exceptional situations which, for instance, arose when the late Minister Brian Lenihan had to receive very expensive treatment for a life threatening condition, she said.

“I can see no other circumstance where very well paid Ministers should be permitted to receive anything other than very limited value gifts or monies for their personal use”, Marian Harkin TD, MEP said.