Published by Elaine Byrne 13 November 2015 The OECD published a preliminary draft of its Review of Budget Oversight by Parliament: Ireland this week. The report can be accessed here.  Key points: Budget oversight by the Irish parliamentary chambers is under-developed by international standards. 17 recommendations which include – Ex ante parliamentary input to medium-term fiscal…

post by Elaine Byrne 13 April 201 The report of the Seanad Working Group on Reform was published today. It can be accessed here. The proposals include votes for the 800,000 Irish passport holders abroad, residents in Northern Ireland and popular election. A draft Bill will be published shortly which seeks to implement the proposals…

Dr. Mel Farrell, 3 December 2014 The Great Depression helped create the party system that dominated Irish politics for eighty years, the Great Recession may be about to force a new way in Irish politics. After the 2011 general election, what newly elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny described as a ‘Democratic Revolution’, shook the foundations of Ireland’s…

Elaine Byrne 21/11/14 The Council of Europe (GRECO) today published it’s fourth evaluation round report on corruption in Ireland. Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors  contains eleven recommendations. The recommendations are a timely intervention into the debate on political reform – much of which campaigners for reform have been advocating for some time. No…

Elaine Byrne, 25 March 2014 The traditional attitude to scandal in Ireland is to politicise and personalise. We move on once the head-on-the-plate has been delivered. Or we just move on without it. The third anniversary of the Moriarty Tribunal fell last weekend – but let’s not go there (the hot weather in exile is some compensation).  Let’s…

Elaine Byrne 3 February 2014 The European Commission published its first Anti-Corruption report today. Information on the Eurobarometer polls and summaries of each country can be found here The Ireland chapter is here. The report makes a number of observations across different sectors of Irish public life. It has commended the government for the reforms it…

Elaine Byrne 31 January 2014 An exchange between the Chair of the Standards in Public Office Commission recently the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan T.D., with regard to the draft guidelines on political finance largely went by unnoticed. Just as unnoticed were the implications of the far-reaching Electoral (Political Funding) Act 2012. …

The Taoiseach and Tánaiste announced Dáil reform measures today – two and a half years after the 2011 election. According to the Irish Times report by Stephen Collins, the measures will only come into force if the electorate gives a mandate to abolish the Seanad. At first glance the commitment to consult experts and civil society before the pre-legislative…

Elaine Byrne, University of New South Wales: 4 September 2013 “10 reports in 75 years – NO reforms introduced to the Seanad” is Fine Gael’s slogan to abolish the Seanad. That’s not true. The Seanad was reformed in 1947 with the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act, 1947. A longer version of my Sunday Independent article will be…

Elaine Byrne, University of New South Wales: 5 August 2013 Following from Dr Theresa Reidy’s excellent post on the need for a political reform “roadmap”, perhaps the political science community might once again engage in an updated version of the “reform scorecard” which was conducted prior to the 2011 general election. The best roadmap right now is clarity.