TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY STUDY
local authorities have non-statutory complaints systems in place. In addition many agencies are no longer scrutinised by the Legislature through Parliamentary Questions. Public utilities that were traditionally within the remit of the relevant public sector ombudsman are now generally within the remit of industry regulators. ‘However, these regulators are principally concerned with issues of pricing and standards. Issues of consumer protection are dictated by the market rather than the concepts of fairness and equity…[an] industry ombudsman [is] not always fully independent of the industry’.175 Although the Government body ‘Regulating Better’ has attempted to address this issue, ‘public bodies seem more reluctant than ever to grant redress’ such as the giving of apologies and the granting of compensation.176 The appointment procedures to the boards of these bodies, estimated at more than 5,000 appointments at national level alone, are not always clear.177 When questioned in an RTÉ interview about why he had appointed individuals to the boards of state bodies who had lent him €38,000 in 1993/1994, the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stated ‘I appointed them because they were friends’.178 175 Ombudsman, International Ombudsman Institute, 9 September 2004 176 Ombudsman, Institute of Public Administration, 20 June 2006 177 Democracy Commission, 2006: 74 178 RTÉ News, 26 September 2006
‘Decentralisation’ In 2003 the Government announced the relocation of eight Departments and the Office of Public Works from Dublin to provincial locations around the country, leaving seven Departments with their headquarters in Dublin. This would involve the movement of 10,000 civil and public service jobs to 58 locations throughout Ireland.179 The move was widely criticised for the financial cost of the programme and the potential loss of institutional memory within the Civil Service. Only 4,275 Dublin-based staff had agreed to move as of 2007, while Departments were expected to lose a large number of management, specialist and technical staff.180
Relationship with other NIS pillars The Public Services Management Act, 1997 introduced a formal structure for delegating authority and accountability through the clarification of the roles and duties of senior civil servants. Civil servants now increasingly report directly to Oireachtas committees. However, the interaction between Ministers and senior civil servants ‘remains a largely grey and undefined area’.181 This was highlighted by the 2005 Travers report into illegal charges on nursing home residents. The 179 www.decentralisation.gov.ie 180 The Irish Times, 8 January 2007 181 Ombudsman, Annual Conference of Assistant Secretaries, 3 March 2005
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