A new report on Irish corruption laws and on the transparency of party funding in Ireland has given a broadly positive assessment.
The Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption (Greco) today published its latest evaluation reports on Ireland focusing on those two key themes – the criminalisation of corruption and possible flaws and opacity in political funding laws.
The two reports conclude that Ireland is generally in compliance with the relevant European Conventions but also makes 10 recommendations where gaps or flaws have been identified.
Greco representatives visited Ireland as part of its research for the report. In terms of the anti-corruption legislation, it notes that is spread across a number of Acts, some extending back over 100 years. It notes that the terminology differs from one Act to another, which creates difficulties, and recommends consolidation into one piece of legislation.
It also identified a small number of flaws in anti-corruption legislation.
In its conclusion it states: “An important lacuna refers to the lack of jurisdiction of Irish authorities over a national who commits a bribery offence abroad, when this person does not have the status of a public official.”
This matter is being addressed in the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2008, which has yet to complete its passage through the Oireachtas.
It also says that there is a need to establish a distinct offence of “trading in influence”.
This would specifically target the corrupt behaviour of those persons who are close to power and who try to obtain advantages from their situation by influencing the decision-maker (so-called background corruption).
Most of the recommendations are in the area of political funding.
Greco noted in particular the huge gap between donations disclosed and the actual funds raised by parties.
It refers to the standard practice where parties solicit the vast majority or their political donations in sums below disclosure limits.
Its key recommendations include a lowering of disclosure limits; further disclosure of party finances; and the desirability of requiring third-parties to make fuller disclosures. The latter is a reference to groups, such as Libertas, which become involved in referendum campaigns.
It notes that the current system has several strong features, including a ban on foreign donations are banned and restrictions on donations and expenditure, the latter at election time.
It also identifies as a strength the role played by the Standards in Public Office Commission.
However, like the corruption report, Greco concludes that the legislation is very fragmented.
It also notes a “significant shortcoming”, namely the absence of a requirement for political parties to account for total finances.
Because of this, it is not possible to know the annual income of political parties or to have a full picture of how elections are funded, it states.