Sir, – Your statement in an otherwise supportive editorial (June 20th) that progress on the Public Sector Standards Bill has been "painfully slow" is less than fair.
The Public Sector Standards Bill is just the latest of a series of reforms enacted by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform since its establishment.
These include the legislation underpinning the current banking inquiry following the defeat of the inquiries referendum, the Protected Disclosures or “whistleblowers” Act, the Regulation of Lobbying Act, the new Freedom of Information Act, expanding the scope of FOI and undoing the damage done by the Fianna Fáil government, the Act expanding the Ombudsman’s powers and a new system governing appointments to State boards. Most of these measures have benefitted from the formal process of pre-legislative scrutiny which broadens the input into the legislative process but does take time.
It is a comprehensive suite of reforms to which the enactment of new consolidated ethics legislation in the form of the Public Sector Standards Bill will be but the latest. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN HOWLIN TD,
Minister for Public
Expenditure and Reform,
Government Buildings,
Dublin 2.