Accountability and Transparency Report Card

44 February 2016

Accountability

and Transparency

Report Card

by Professor Dvid Frrell,

School of Politics and International Relations, UCD

olitical reform was high on the

agenda of all political parties in

2011. In the heat of the worst eco-

nomic crisis in the history of the

state it was apparent to all that fail-

ings in our political structures were at least

partially to blame. In the opening line of its

2011 Programme for Government the new coa-

lition government wrote boldly of a “democratic

revolution”. A series of political reforms was

promised, particularly in the two most press-

ing areas: accountability and transparency:

accountability in the sense of giving the Dáil

in particular more of a hold over future govern-

ments; transparency in terms of opening

government up to closer scrutiny.

The scorecard on these two streams of

reforms is pretty mixed overall. The good news

is that many of the objectives (and a few addi-

tional ones) were met on the transparency

agenda. The three main planks of an ‘open

government’ agenda – freedom of information

reinstatement; whistleblowers legislation,

and a register of lobbyists – were all

implemented, and there were more wide

spread initiatives to spread an open

government agenda across government and

the public service. Much praise for all of this

goes directly to Brendan Howlin who showed,

more than any other minister in this govern-

ment, true reforming zeal. There were also

initiatives emanating from the Department of

the Environment, most notably those aimed at

opening up party ﬁnance to closer scrutiny:

however, as the annual reports of the Stand-

ards in Public Ofﬁce Commission reveal a lot

more work still needs to be done in this quar-

ter. The lack of any serious intent to establish

an Electoral Commission was a major imple-

mentation failure.

The government’s record on accountability

reforms was nothing short of dismal. A series

of pretty irrelevant changes was introduced

(cutting pay, reducing the number of TDs,

Friday sittings, and so on), but reforms that

would actually make a difference to the bal-

ance of power between the Dáil and the

government were few. About the only reform

of any signiﬁcance was the introduction of a

pre-legislative stage, giving committees

greater potential to introduce amendments to

bills. What clearly made the difference in this

instance was the lack of a minister whose port-

folio included Dáil reform. In 2011 we had the

weakest parliament in Europe. Five years later

– and despite the government having the larg-

est parliamentary majority in the history of the

state and cross-party consensus in favour of

true Dáil reform – we are left with what is still

the weakest parliament in Europe.

Overall, the record is not good. The perennial

Irish problem of prevarication continues apace.

Distracted politicians (who all too easily take

their eye off the ball of longer term objectives)

combined with the dead hand of civil service

mandarins (whose life mission is to preserve

the status quo) have won the day again. While

the government may have scored well (B+) on

transparency, it receives a pretty dismal D on

accountability, dragging down its average

rating on political reform to a C – not quite the

democratic revolution we’d been promised.

2016 ELECTION

"C"

"B+ on transparency;

D on accountability.

Not quite the democratic

revolution we’d been promised."

February 2016 45

Accountability

Referendum to give Oireachtas committees power to carry out

investigations

Referendum was held in 2011 but didn’t succeed. In its stead the government passed the

Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 aimed at giving Oireachtas Com-

mittees greater capability in inquiries. However, the limitations of this new legislation were

brought into sharp relief during the course of the Banking Inquiry.

Referendum to protect rights of citizens to communicate in conﬁ-

dence with TDs

No referendum was held; however, legislative protections were brought in via the Houses of

the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileged and Procedures) Act 2013

Give key committees constitutional standing

Not implemented

Better resourcing of committees

Not implemented

New role for Ceann Comhairle to decide whether a minister has

failed to properly answer a question

Standing orders were changed but little evidence that this new role has been applied

A series of changes to Dáil questions and debates including: speed

up time for responses to written questions; more time for oral

questions; topical issue debates

All of these were implemented.

Remove restrictions of extent of evidence that civil servants can

give to committees.w

Not implemented

Committees to be given power to introduce legislation

Not implemented

Reduce the use of guillotines

Only in the last 12 months has there been any evidence of a serious effort to reduce the

number of guillotines, in large part because media coverage forced the government’s hand.

Pre-legislative stage for Bills

This was implemented gradually over the course of the Dáil and is now becoming standard

practice

Introduce committee weeks

Not implemented

Referendum to abolish Seanad; reductions in ministerial pay;

smaller Dail; fewer Dail committees; Dail to meet more regularly

A referendum to abolish the Seanad was held in 2013 but didn’t succeed; the other reforms

were all introduced with little if any impact on accountability

Transparency

Restore Freedom of Information “to what it was before”.

After some prevarication, delay and last minute hitches over the issue of fees, legislation

was passed in 2015

Legislate on the issue of cabinet conﬁdentiality

Not implemented

Introduce whistleblowers legislation

Protected Disclosures Act passed in 2014. But controversies over the treatment of Garda

whistleblowers in 2014 shows the ongoing problem of trying to introduce a culture shift in

the higher echelons

Reduce the limits of political donations and ban corporate

donations

New limits were introduced for corporate donations, but – as before – the parties have

proved adept at working around them

Introduce a statutory register of lobbyists

Regulation of Lobbying Act passed in 2015 and the Register has been up and running since

September 2015

Establish an Electoral Commission

After considerable delay, the Environment, Culture and Gaeltacht Committee was ﬁnally

charged with considering this in late 2015. Its report was published on the eve of the elec-

tion meaning that, in effect, this issue was (yet again) kicked into the next Dáil

“We will open up the Budget process to the full glare of public

scrutiny”.

Not implemented

Extras not in the 2011 Programme for Government

PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT ACTUAL PERFORMANCE  - 

Public Sector Standards Bill is at an advanced stage and should be ready for completion in the next Dáil. This introduces a new Public Sector Stand-

ards Commission, whose remit is to provide a statutory framework governing disclosure of interests and other ethical obligations for public ofﬁcials.

Ireland became a full member in 2014 of the Open Government Partnership, an international initiative designed to promote an open government

agenda. Among other measures this has seen the establishment of an Open Data Platform.