Speaking this morning in Cork, Michael McGrath conceded that Deputy English's resignation damaged public trust in politicians.
He said the Government would lead by bringing forward legislation this year to strengthen the powers and increase the resources of the ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission. He said he believed"very many" of the recommendations made by SIPO in its recent annual reports would be incorporated into that legislation."I believe that legislation will be brought forward by the Government over the course of this year and we do need to finally up-date and modernise and strengthen ethics in public life [legislation], because events like this only serve to damage public trust and confidence in politicians and politics and that is not good for our country.
Minister McGrath said it was now a matter for SIPO as to whether it wished to further investigate Deputy English over the planning application he made to Meath County Council in 2008. Yesterday, the TD accepted that he failed to inform the council of his ownership of a house at Castlemartin in Co Meath at the time of his application to build a house elsewhere in the county.
Unless there’s a sanction of losing your seat, it’s a waste of time.
What FF/FG are saying is that they have deliberately under resourced SIPO 100YearsOfFFFGfailure
Will this remove the liars from Dail Éireann.