Briefing on Ireland

1
Briefing on Ireland

• Neil Collins
• University College Cork
• Ireland

2
Briefing on Ireland

• structure of Irish politics
• corruption scandals
• background to the Commission

3
Ireland political structure

• Institutions of the Republic
• Westminster model
• fusion of legislature and executive
• executive drawn from among elected members of
  parliament
• inadequate checks vs responsive
• two key differences
• PRSTV Bunreacht na hÉireann written
  constitution

4
Ireland political structure

• institutions - Presidency, Oireachtas
  (parliament), Cabinet, Courts
• powers ? general principles British-style
  parliamentary democracy but
• power of prime minister chairman or chief
• resignation of prime minister/calling of election
• STV now no single party governments
• written document judicial review ? British
  in its texture

5
Ireland political structure

• another significant difference
• two main parties, Fianna Fáil (FF) Fine Gael
  (FG)
• Civil War following Independence but
• Berlin or Boston
• social democratic, welfarist, interventionist
  vs. neo-liberal, free market, anti-big
  government
• Labour Party
• minor parties - Greens, Sinn Féin, Progressive
  Democrats, independents
• personal first preference votes

6
Ireland political structure

• President of Ireland ceremonial
• Taoiseach
• choose cabinet ministers and junior ministers
• call general election (max 5 years)
• control over the Dáil
• management of the civil service
• patronage and appointments
• ministers - more vulnerable to criticism
• good department is one where the opportunities
  for favourable publicity are substantial.

7
Ireland political structure

• Ministerial responsibility, collective
  responsibility, cabinet confidentiality
• ministers seldom resign from office
• errors or failures
• parliamentary pressure
• collective responsibility, yes but
• distinctive party political profile

8
Ireland political structure

• Dáil Éireann 166 members
• 41 constituencies, returning between three and
  five
• Seanad Éireann 60 members
• same parties as in the Dáil
• parliament
• excessively pre-occupied with constituency
  business
• significantly diminished by corporatist
  arrangements known as social partnership

9
Ireland political structure

• local government
• on Independence corruption almost endemic
• managers chief executive of council
• independent decision-making powers
• public national competition, contracted 7 years
• highly circumscribed financial independence
  very limited

10
Corruption scandals

• received wisdom misuse of office want of
  probily ? last 20 years. Maybe but
• politicians deciding specific, individual policy
  decisions of high value to wealthy business
  interests
• planning at local government level
• cs routinely exercise discretion over
  commercially valuable decisions
• ministerial decisions are both commercially
  charged policy criteria are insufficiently
  explicit
• early 1980s, scandals enveloped Fianna Fáil
  government led by Charles Haughey
• abuses of power such as unwarranted telephone
  tapping and interference with police
  administration
• seemed confined to a small group within FF but
• Beef, McCracken, Moriarty and Flood Tribunals
  politicians, money and relationship with business

11
Corruption scandals

• planing system re-zoning
• councillors especially in Dublin
• a senior official
• more modest sums, often charactirised as
  assistance with election expenses
• outside planning process of ending state
  monopolies

12
Background to Commission

• Ethics Act 1995 very significant
• statutory obligations on disclosure of interests
  -office holders, members of Dáil and Seanad,
  public service, including civil service
• sets standards in performance and conflicts of
  interest.
• important legislative response to public demand
  for transparency.

13
Background to Commission

• Electoral Act 1997 principles of openness and
  accountability.
• relationships between
• parties and individual politicians
• politicians and donors
• Equity in electoral process
• capping election spending
• assisting greater candidate participation by
  providing portion of election expenses
• Commission
• supervising legislation
• publication of guidelines
• giving of advice
• implementing disclosure requirements of

14
Accountability Principle v. Legislation

• Standards Act 2001
• Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001
• prohibits foreign donations
• limits on the value of donations
• political donations accounts
• registration of pressure groups
• Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary
  Offices) (Amendment) Act, 2001
• annual allowance to leaders of parties.

15
Current Irish Legal Provision

• Conventions
• Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on
  Corruption (signed 4 November 1999)
• Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on
  Corruption (ratified 3 October 2003)
• EU Convention on the fight against Corruption
  (ratified March 2003)
• OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (ratified 22
  September 2003)
• UN Convention against Transnational Organised
  Crime (signed December 2000)
• UN Convention against Corruption (signed 9
  December 2003)

16
Corruption scandals

• true sense of scandal but
• rent-seeking behaviour
• reducing the number of levels of decision-taking
• ? cost of being corrupt chances of being caught
• translated into more laws and codes, harsher
  penalties along with news forms of checks and
  investigations
• reticence about parliamantary bodies preference
  for judges
• Public Accounts Committee in relation to tax
  evasion