Discussion: Code of Ethics/Laws for the eIreland Parliment.

Day 3,654, 02:35 • Published in Ireland United Kingdom • by Rusty D


Greetings eIreland,

After a few recent events in the eIrish congress, I wanted to raise a discussion about the Code of Conduct/Rules/Laws that your sitting congress members should be following. Whilst in the past, I have been informed there was a Code of Conduct, it appears this has drifted off into the way side.



Rather then go out and produce my own, I wanted to include all members of the Irish public to join in on the discussion about it.

Anyone who has sat in congress, has seen that some (but not all) members have their own little things going on, whether it be insults, bullying or leaking of information from the congress threads. And yes I know I have been known to drop a few four letter words and taken aim at some people.

However, hopefully with the input of all, we can try and set up a guide/standard of rules, that we all can expect our congress members to follow, to allow people to feel at ease to speak freely in congress, to allow discussions to take place with out the fear the information will be leaked to our enemies and so forth.

This code below was taken from the RL Irish parliament:

CODE

1. Members must, in good faith, strive to maintain the public trust placed in them, and exercise the influence gained from their membership of Dáil Éireann to advance the public interest.

2. Members must conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions and spirit of the Code of Conduct and ensure that their conduct does not bring the integrity of their office or the Dáil into serious disrepute.

3. (i) Members have a particular obligation to behave in a manner which is consistent with their roles as public representatives and legislators, save where there is a legitimate and sustainable conscientious objection.

(ii) Members must interact with authorities involved with public administration and the enforcement of the law in a manner which is consistent with their roles as public representatives and legislators.

4. (i) Members must base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest and are individually responsible for preventing conflicts of interest.

(ii) Members must endeavour to arrange their private financial affairs to prevent such conflicts of interest arising and must take all reasonable steps to resolve any such conflict quickly and in a manner which is in the best interests of the public.

5. (i) A conflict of interest exists where a Member participates in or makes a decision in the execution of his or her office knowing that it will improperly and dishonestly further his or her private financial interest or another person's private financial interest directly or indirectly.

(ii) A conflict of interest does not exist where the Member or other person benefits only as a member of the general public or a broad class of persons.

6. Members may not solicit, accept or receive any financial benefit or profit in exchange for promoting, or voting on, a Bill, a motion for a resolution or order or any question put to the Dáil or to any of its committees.

7. Members must fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the Dáil and of the law in respect of the registration and declaration of interests and, to assist them in so doing, should familiarise themselves with the relevant legislation and guidelines published from time to time by the Committee on Members' Interests and the Standards in Public Office Commission as appropriate.

8. (i) Members must not accept a gift that may pose a conflict of interest or which might interfere with the honest and impartial exercise of their official duties.

(ii) Members may accept incidental gifts and customary hospitality.

9. In performing their official duties, Members must apply public resources prudently and only for the purposes for which they are intended.

10. Members must not use official information which is not in the public domain, or information obtained in confidence in the course of their official duties, for personal gain or the personal gain of others.

11. Members must co-operate with all Tribunals of Inquiry and other bodies inquiring into matters of public importance established by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Whilst some of it might be relevent to our e-game, some aspects might not be, but it can be used as a good starting point for discussions.

So please feel free to comment on some things you would like to see happen in congress, so as a country, we can try and set up a set of rules/code of conduct for all of our Congress Members to follow.... yes me included 😉

Rusty D.