It has emerged that the Standards in Public Office Commission is unable to investigate complaints made about the way the Public Accounts Committee dealt with issues relating to former Rehab Director Frank Flannery.
SIPO said that complaints about members of the PAC, or of other Oireachtas committees, are matters for the clerks and the Committee on Member's Interests, where appropriate.
It said that as no resolutions have been passed in the Houses of the Oireachtas to designate chairpersons of Oireachtas committees as 'office holders' for the purposes of the Ethics in Public Office Acts, the commission cannot itself currently investigate complaints.
The issue has arisen in the case of a six-page complaint made by Mr Flannery to SIPO regarding the conduct of the PAC and its chairman in its Rehab hearings.
SIPO said that in its 2008 annual report it noted that the then tánaiste and minister for finance, Brian Cowen, having consulted with Oireachtas committee chairpersons and having considered the issues decided not to move the resolutions to designate chairpersons as office holders.
The Standards Commission said it regretted this decision.
