Politics

Elaine Byrne: Will we see real reform of our ethics laws? To quote a famous answer, will we f**k

Publishing well-intentioned reports is one thing; getting their recommendations past vested interests is quite another

It is now eight years and three governments since the Public Sector Standards Bill was published in 2015: its slow progress is not a good reflection on our politicians

The long-awaited review of Ireland’s statutory framework for ethics in public office was finally published this week by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

It comes three years after the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green coalition committed to reform the ethics legislation in its 2020 Programme for Government. No timeline was announced as to when the new Public Sector Standards Bill will be published.

There are some suggestions that it will be later ...