New guidelines to curb "double-jobbing" and other conflicts of interest involving local authority officials are to be put in place urgently by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey.
Following the publication yesterday of reports from the 34 county and city managers on the extent of the "nixer" problem in their areas, Mr Dempsey said he would also be looking at strengthening the ethical provisions of his Local Government Bill.
As a result of the investigations, two local authority officials have resigned, one has taken a career break, five have been suspended without pay - four for seven days and one for five days - and 42 have received warnings, of whom 24 work for Kerry County Council.
Referring to the case of Mr Donal Mangan, the former Killarney town engineer, who was among those suspended for seven days, the Minister said he was asking the Kerry county manager, Mr Martin Nolan, for an assurance that further conflicts of interest would not arise.
It is understood that he was precluded from taking firmer action because Mr Mangan, who was reported to have been "involved in development activities on a significant scale", had already been disciplined.
Investigations are continuing in three local authorities - Cork and Leitrim county councils and Galway Corporation - on double-jobbing claims.
In many other councils, however, there was an incomplete response from officials to requests for written assurances.
Officials who are members of IMPACT, the public service union, were advised not to sign forms saying that they were aware of, and complying with, the code of practice laid down by the 1984 Local Government Regulations - mainly on the ground of ambiguity.
"We said they shouldn't sign blanket statements because of a lack of clarity on what constitutes a conflict of interest," Mr Bernard Harbor, IMPACT's information officer, said last night.
"What we are saying is that we want to see some clarity in the regulations."
Mr Dempsey said he would shortly issue guidelines to the local authorities to enable them put codes of practice in place, as provided in last year's Planning Act.
At present, the only disciplinary options available to a county or city manager for breaches of the regulations - apart from issuing written warnings - are one week's suspension or terminating an officer's employment. In Mr Dempsey's view, this choice was too stark.
