February 15, 2012
By Eoin O’Malley (15 February, 2012)
SIPO last night released details for candidate election expenses – set out here. They provide useful information as to what candidates spent their money on in the campaign and how much each spent. They are less useful, however, for disclosing where each candidate’s money came from. We can see, for instance, that Gay Mitchell spent €527, 152, making him the highest spending candidate, but still well below the spending limit of €750,000. But we have no idea where the money came from, as none of his donations exceeded €634.87. Martin McGuinness spent just over €300k, but received a bit over €4,000 in disclose-able donations. Much of the money from these candidates will have been raise in the form of donations of less than €634. A lot of it may have come from their parties, and donations to the parties will be disclosed separately (this may benefit parties as a donor can give to a party and to a candidate used for the same campaign but not disclosed as such). And some of the money spent may have come in the form of bank loans. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | 
Corruption and Accountability, Lobbying, The Presidency | Tagged: campaign expenses, political donations, SIPO | 
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Posted by Eoin O'Malley
February 6, 2012
Posted by David Farrell (February 6, 2012)
Reports are circulating that the government is about to take steps to deal with Ireland’s terrible shortcomings on Freedom of Information and Whistleblowers legislation (to be blogged about when more is known). Both measures were promised in the Programme for Government and they are important steps on the road to making Irish government more open and transparent. But there is so much more that is needed, and high on the list should be ending the disgraceful practice of allowing our elected representatives to claim expenses without having to provide receipts – ‘unvouched expenses’ to use the jargon of Irish government. The Programme for Government also promised to end this practice, but so far there is no sign of any action. As was widely reported in the media last week, TDs (and Senators) have access to generous allowances to cover travel and accommodation. What was not reported on is just how many of them still continue to opt for unvouched expenses, which prevents any financial scrutiny of the claims. Read the rest of this entry »
19 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, freedom of information, Government reform | Tagged: Open Government, TDs expenses, unvouched expenses | Permalink
Posted by David Farrell
January 14, 2012
Posted by David Farrell (January 14, 2012)
Two areas greatly in need for reform are funding of politics and the operation of the Dáil – both in the news today (see here and here). In fairness to the government, some move has been made on both agendas (more generally, see here): legislation has been brought in relating to donations to political parties; and there have been changes to how the Dáil operates including the introduction of Friday sittings. Read the rest of this entry »
24 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, Dail Reform | Tagged: Dail reform, political donations, unvouched expenses | Permalink
Posted by David Farrell
March 30, 2011
By Iain McMenamin (30 March, 2011)
The Moriarty Tribunal’s report details an exchange between a politician and businessman, the like of which cannot easily be targeted by political reforms. Politicians have a demand for cash and can supply lucrative private goods to business, such as a mobile phone licence. The political demand for cash in Ireland is already limited compared to other countries such as the USA and Australia because paid broadcast advertising is not allowed. The Criminal Assets Bureau has great potential to recoup illicit cash from politicians. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, Government reform | Tagged: corruption, Lobbying, Michael Lowry, Moriarty | Permalink
Posted by Eoin O'Malley
March 22, 2011
Posted by Elaine Byrne
The Moriarty Tribunal has published two reports today into Michael Lowry and Ben Dunne and Michael Lowry and Denis O’Brien
Some highlights:
The Moriarty Tribunal has described Michael Lowry’s actions in influencing the awarding of the mobile phone licence as “disgraceful” and “insidious”.
The tribunal found that his influence was both direct, in his “disgraceful action in bringing a guillotine down on the work of the Project Group” and “indirect and insidious”, arising from his interaction with the chairman of the Project Group, and his intimation of his views on the second-ranked consortium and on how Esat Digifone’s financial problems could be met. Read the rest of this entry »
15 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, Government reform, Judicial reform, Politics | Tagged: Michael Lowry, Moriarty, Tribunals of Inquiry | Permalink
Posted by Editors
November 22, 2010
Posted by Elaine Byrne
MY TEN PROPOSALS FOR POLITICAL REFORM
Detailed information on rationale for proposals contained in links within each proposal taken from my Irish Times columns. The reason for reform.
- Publish full political financial accounts online, greater powers for Standards Commission and ratify GRECO recommendations.
- Reform committee system, repeal Abbeylara decision and give committees renewed investigative powers.
- Rebalance relationship between executive and legislature as was intended in Article 28 of Constitution
- Meaningful open government with stronger FOI legislation, new whistleblower and lobbying legislation and public appointments board.
- Reform local government with revenue raising powers and reform planning powers
- Diverse representation in public life through a reformed Senand which would encompass island of Ireland and diaspora in public life
- Introduce gender quotas, lower voting age to 16, reform decision making process
- Change the electoral system
- Definition of Republic in constitution and statement of values
- Citizens assembly to be implemented
83 Comments | Committee System, Corruption and Accountability, Dail Reform, Government reform, New Republic | Tagged: Political reform | Permalink
Posted by Editors
November 8, 2010
Post by David Farrell, November 8, 2010
Fine Gael’s latest policy document — in part a rehash of existing policies, in part some new ideas — is to be welcomed not least because it helps to keep reform on the policy agenda. While it’s launch may not have gone as smoothly as the leadership would have liked, the document does deserve close reading. It makes useful proposals in a range of areas, most notably:
- Making governmental processes more open and transparent
- Regulating lobbying
- Reducing the costs of government (again, Seanad abolition makes a showing)
- Civil service reform
- Reform of the budgetary process
This is a start: we can only hope that much more is to follow. Will the other parties follow suit and publish their plans for political reform?
3 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, Dail Reform, Government reform, Lobbying, Politicalreform admin, Seanad Reform | Tagged: Fine Gael, Political reform | Permalink
Posted by David Farrell
November 4, 2010
By Matt Wall
Fintan O’Toole’s summary of the reforms that he proposes in his new book: ’Enough is Enough’ advocates ’30 key steps’ to that we need to take to reform democracy in Ireland – many of which have been debated intensely on this site.
Some of these are more contested than others, there are well-rehearsed arguments on either side of the electoral reform and gender quota debates for instance – but I think he is to be applauded for laying out a suite of concrete proposals for debate. Hopefully this is a signal that we are starting to look towards the future, so that we don’t end up repeating the mistakes of the past.
5 Comments | Committee System, Corruption and Accountability, Dail Reform, Electoral Reform, European Union, Lobbying, Local Government, Political culture, Politicalreform admin, women in politics | Permalink
Posted by Matthew Wall
November 3, 2010
Posted by Eoin O’Malley
If electronic voting was rejected because of the absence of a paper trail, perhaps this voting system could solve that problem. It would mean an end to the tallymen, and for that reason alone doesn’t get my vote.
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18 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, Electoral Reform | Tagged: Elections, Electoral Reform, electronic voting | Permalink
Posted by Eoin O'Malley
October 29, 2010
posted by Elaine Byrne
The Department of Justice have recently published a discussion document on “Organised and White Collar Crime”, and this paper can be found here.
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Corruption and Accountability, regulatory systems | Permalink
Posted by Editors
Editors
Matthew Wall
ElaineByrne
Jane Suiter
Liam Weeks
Séin Ó Muineacháin
David Farrell
Eoin O'Malley
Gary Murphy
Michael Gallagher
Theresa Reidy
Adrian Kavanagh
Jennifer Kavanagh
Claire McGing
psaigenderpoliticssg
Ken McDonagh
johnobrennan
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