Yesterday, the heads of a new Bill were introduced in the Oireachtas, which if passed in its original form, will give Ireland some of the toughest anti-corruption legislation in the world. The heads of the Criminal Justice (Corruption) Bill 2012 are available here. Elaine Byrne, the Trinity College lecturer and author of the recently-published “Political Corruption in Ireland 1922-2010: A crooked harp?” says that “if this corruption bill is not watered down, it will be one of the most radical pieces of legislation internationally on corruption”. And although there is no claim to expertise in such matters on here, the Bill’s headings promise a tough approach to a scourge of Irish life that seems to have largely gone unpunished in the past.
NAMA is specifically named in the Bill as a public body which makes sense, though it is ironic that NAMA is presently in the courts battling with the Information Commissioner who last year, dubbed NAMA a public body subject to environmental information requests, something to which NAMA objects. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – IBRC, the name of the new organisation formed from the merger of Anglo and Irish Nationwide Building Society – is not named in the heads; who knows what will happen with any corrupt goings-on there.
NAMA was supposed to have been immunised against corruption through its anti-lobbying rules, but in practice these rules appear useless, and it seems that politicians now routinely refer matters to NAMA with the intention of influencing NAMA behaviour. NAMA has even set up a dedicated phone hotline for TDs and senators as well as a special email address oir@nama.ie
What will the rules in the new Bill mean for NAMA? Both NAMA employees and contractors, and those interacting with NAMA, in Ireland or abroad, can be fined and imprisoned for up to 10 years for acting corruptly. Even recklessness and intimidation are addressed, and presumptions of guilt are made in certain circumstances such as if a person’s income or wealth is at odds with their official source of income.
The Bill was introduced by Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter and it would seem to have a reasonable chance of making it onto the statute books in something close to its current form. Alas, the general legal principle is that laws can’t be retrospectively applied to what-are-now-offences, so our past scourges may still go unpunished.
NAMA Wine Lake 
This is great news.
However we have a long history of passing laws that look great on paper and then not bothering to enforce them.
The delay in prosecuting our insiders is the most obvious example.
Manipulating a share to hold or boost it’s price has been illegal for as long as we had a stock market.
Another example is the failure of the Gardai to prosecute paedophile priests in the past and their protective bishops in the present. It shows how vested interests don’t get prosecuted in Ireland.
The critical question is who will enforce this law.
If it’s the DPP and the Gardai then we will have another Irish solution to an Irish problem. They have been ineffective with the adequate laws that are already on the books. Worse still we will have the illusion that something has actually changed.
See what Eliot Spitzer (3 minutes) calls the New Banking Reforms A Regulatory Charade.
http://noolmusic.com/youtube/eliot_spitzer_new_banking_reforms_a_regulatory_charade.php
When we see the first auditor, banker, lawyer or politician in jail for corruption then we will know we have made some real progress.Anybody want to bet how long this will take under this new law. Let’s all come back in 2020 and see how many have been jailed.
I’m betting not one.
Does this cover jobs for the boys & girls under the Croke Park agreement?
@ Paddy 19 +1
Lets wait and see if the final text survives the usual last-minute watering- down and loophole-inserting amendments. As Tom Waits says: “The large Print Giveth and the Small Print Taketh Away”. Ineffectiveness by careful design has been the hallmark of previous similar legislation (such as Ethics in Public Office, Consumer Protection etc) which look fine on paper but are ineffectual in practice. There seems to be a similar flim-flam in prospect with lobbying and whistleblower legislation. The latter is careful to avoid amending the draconian Official Secrets Act which astonishingly makes it a potential criminal offence for most non-Revenue officials to report suspicions of tax evasion or other wrongdoing coming to notice in the course of their official work. It took Ansbacher to force the Government into giving Central Bank officials limited reporting protection, but that’s as far as it went. Unless there are meaningful changes, the whistleblower legislation looks like being another in the paper tiger catalogue.
In a piece by Ian Kehoe nearly two weeks ago he disclosed that the ODCE has complained to Finance officials, by way of written submission, that the 2011 Finance Bill contains a rogue confidentiality clause. This clause, which they euphemistically describe as “legislative weakness”, stops them from investigating effectively.
Is there any further detail on record yet? Does anyone take seriously the heads of an anti-corruption bill that derives from the same crowd who shackle those who are designated to investigate corruption?
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