Four kinds of accountability
Governance students often separate accountability into types. Political accountability runs through elections and the Dáil. Financial accountability asks whether public money was spent lawfully and well. Administrative accountability gives individuals a way to challenge how they were treated. Ethical accountability sets rules on conflicts of interest, donations and lobbying. Ireland has a different institution for each.
| Body | Type | What it does | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dáil Éireann and committees | Political | Confidence votes, questions, committee hearings, legislation | Make findings of fact that damage the good name of non-members |
| Comptroller and Auditor General | Financial | Audits public bodies and reports to the Dáil | Decide whether a policy is wise |
| Public Accounts Committee | Financial and political | Examines C&AG reports and questions accounting officers | Question the merits of Government policy |
| Ombudsman | Administrative | Investigates complaints about public bodies | Overturn a court decision or act before the body has had a chance to respond |
| Standards in Public Office Commission | Ethical | Oversees ethics law, political donations rules and the lobbying register | Act as a general anti-corruption police force |
| Information Commissioner | Transparency | Reviews refusals under Freedom of Information | Release records that fall under a valid exemption |
Following the money: the C&AG and PAC
The Comptroller and Auditor General is set up by Article 33 of the Constitution. The office audits Government Departments and many other public bodies and reports to Dáil Éireann. Those reports are the raw material for the Public Accounts Committee, which calls senior officials, known as accounting officers, to explain how money was spent.Read the full guide to the PAC.
Two newer bodies add forward-looking financial scrutiny. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council assesses the Government's budget forecasts and fiscal rules, and the Parliamentary Budget Office gives TDs and Senators independent analysis of budgets and costings.
Complaints and information
The Office of the Ombudsman, created by the Ombudsman Act 1980, examines complaints about Government Departments, local authorities, the HSE and many other public bodies. You usually complain to the body first. If you are still unhappy, the Ombudsman can investigate and recommend a remedy. There is a separate Ombudsman for Children.
The Freedom of Information Act 2014 gives everyone a right to request records held by most public bodies, subject to exemptions such as cabinet confidentiality, personal information and commercial sensitivity. If a request is refused, you can seek an internal review and then appeal to the Information Commissioner. For students, a well-targeted FOI request can turn a project from summary into original research.
Ethics, donations and lobbying
The Standards in Public Office Commission, known as SIPO, was established under the Standards in Public Office Act 2001. It oversees the Ethics in Public Office Acts, which require office holders and senior officials to declare interests, and it has supervised rules on political donations and election spending.
SIPO also runs the register created by the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015. Organisations that lobby designated public officials, including Ministers, TDs, Senators and senior civil servants, must record who they contacted and about what. The register is public at lobbying.ie and is an underused source for anyone researching how policy is made.
The limits of parliamentary inquiry
In Maguire v Ardagh [2002] 1 IR 385, the Abbeylara case, the Supreme Court held that an Oireachtas committee did not have the power to make findings of fact damaging to the good name of people who were not members. A 2011 referendum to give the Oireachtas wider inquiry powers was rejected. The Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 later set out a narrower framework, used for the banking inquiry. For more serious investigations, Governments have relied on tribunals of inquiry and commissions of investigation.
Questions to test yourself
- What is the difference between the C&AG and the Public Accounts Committee?
- Why might a Government support Freedom of Information laws that make its own work harder?
- What can the lobbying register tell you that the Dáil record cannot?
- Why did the Abbeylara case limit Oireachtas inquiries, and was it right?
- Which type of accountability is weakest in Ireland? Use evidence.