TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL IRELAND is requesting that essential reforms to improve access to information from public agencies and politicians be prioritised by the incoming government.

The Public Sector Standards Bill 2015 seeks to revise some of the current obligations and standards in the declarations made by politicians and some public bodies. After the Dáil was dissolved in 2019, the bill lapsed after failing to pass the committee stage.

John Devitt, the CEO of Transparency International (TI) Ireland is now calling for a renewed focus to be brought to the draft law, so that it can be passed during the next term.

Devitt, who started with the organisation when it began in 2004, told The Journal that there has been less progress to provide better access to information in the last 20 years.

TI Ireland will be writing to all parties to address this issue.

“Prior to 2004, when TI Ireland was launched, we saw some progress being made in addressing some loopholes,” Devitt said, citing the Freedom of Information Act, reforms to the Electoral Act and the Ethics in Public Office Act.

“But since then, there’s been relatively little progress made in those three areas,” he said, adding that there has been backsliding in regards to access to information.

TI Ireland recently highlighted one such area where there is limited, or in some cases no, access - the Registry of Beneficial Ownership. This register details the name of a person, or people, who hold the largest stake or voting rights in a company.

In 2022, after a ruling by the European Court which placed a new description on who could gain access to the information, many in Ireland lost access to this register.

Alex Chance, the director of policy and research, told The Journal that TI Ireland, along with the International Monetary Fund, recommends that Dublin re-prioritises anti-money laundering techniques.

This is in the context of trillions of euro in assets being domiciled in Ireland, Chance said.

He said Irish law enforcement agencies are skilled at tackling illegal financial activity domestically, while international money laundering is massively challenging.

Devitt said if investigative journalists and other transparency advocacy organisations had better access to the information, it could help “an under-resourced law enforcement agency, like the gardaí” to receive tip offs.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe recently said in the Dáil that his department was drafting a new scheme to reform the ethics in public office.

While he said the government came across “a number of challenges” when the Public Sector Standards Bill 2015 came to the Dáil, a new scheme would be delivered. It was not complete by the time the Dáil was dissolved in November.