SIPO: Powerless and ineffective

Today, I finally received a decision from the Standards in Public Office Commission regarding my complaint about Bertie Ahern.

Dear Mr. Sheridan,

I refer to your email of 10th of October 2006 to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Standards Commission) concerning a complaint about An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Having considered your complaint, along with observations on the matter which it received from Mr. Ahern, the Standards Commission has decided that there is no basis on which to initiate an investigation under the Ethics in Public Office Acts 1995 and 2001.

The Standards Commission may examine the matter again if additional evidence emerges from the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments.

Yours sincerely

Not for a moment did I think the decision would be otherwise. Neither does it surprise me that it took a year (short of three weeks) to process what should be a simple matter

As I wrote before concerning a complaint about another dodgy politician, Pat the Cope Gallagher;

Part of the reason for making these complaints is to challenge government agencies, to expose the fact that they are practically powerless (no accident) and the little power they do have is almost never used – Deliberate policy?

4 thoughts on “SIPO: Powerless and ineffective”

  1. Strangely enough, the press release from SIPO (see http://www.sipo.gov.ie/en/PressReleases/Name,7423,en.htm) does not mention that ‘The Standards Commission may examine the matter again if additional evidence emerges from the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments’. It only gives a terse “The Standards Commission will not be issuing any further statement or making any further comment”.

    One might wonder why they forgot to give this nugget to the great unwashed?

  2. When Bertie Ahern appointed Liam Lawlor to the Joint Committee on Finance and The Public Service, which amongst other things, was responsible for ethics legislation he sent a clear message about what he thought about ethics.
    The SIPO have shown that they understood him- just as RTE showed that they understood what he wanted in relation to Beverly Cooper Flynns legal expenses.
    Fascism is alive and well in Irealnd.

  3. Pingback: SIPO press release at Gavin’s Blog

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