Change the Constitution to allow former government members to be arrested and tried?

[feargach]

Tried and if found guilty jailed for economic mismanagement, that is.

I want the next Dáil to bring an amendment to the Constitution to allow retrospective law to enable former government members to be tried and if convicted jailed, for extreme economic mismanagement.

I believe there is no EU impediment to this, as Poland has successfully passed retrospective laws to punish former members of the communist dictatorship. If we want to allow retrospective law to punish former bad governments, we can have it.

I believe a Constitutional referendum would be needed, however I see no reason to assume that such a referendum would not be considered by the people.

My vote will go to whichever party promises this. I think it will augur well for Irish governments in the future if jail time is seen to be a result of a bad economic vote in Cabinet.

At the present time, the only punishment possible for a bad government is an election loss, and that's no punishment at all, as cabinet members generally get paid more once they leave politics.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

I would suggest that we already have criminal offences on the statute books with which a number of current and past Ministers should be charged.

I don't think we need a change in the constitution for that- we just need those who are charged with investigating and prosecuting such occurrences in Ireland to grow a pair.

We have the Criminal Assets Bureau whose direction seems to be limited to drug dealers only (why?). Are criminals determined to be only those who aren't bankers, fraudulent accountants and bent solicitors?

[bodieharpur]

This depends on effective law enforcement, an alien concept in Ireland.

[feargach]

I would probably comfortably bet a large sum that any criminal trial would be comfortably rejected, because the law as it stands would probably be found to give carte blanche to governments.

The constitutional referendum would probably have to include a brand-new Supreme Court bench to weed out judges whose judicial philosophy allows for letting former governments off the hook for decisions.

I would argue that the need to instil a definite, non-theoretical fear of retribution into the hearts of future, current and former governments outweighs literally every other consideration.

[FakeViking]

McDowell spoke about setting up a Corruption Assets Bureau but probably couldn't get it past the FFers, they know they'll be the ones in the frame.

[controller]

Well, while they are at it, Frank Dunlop was convicted on the 26 May 2009 for corruption. This corruption was bribing politicians at the time of crucial rezoning votes at council meetings relating to lands at Carrickmines in Dublin. Surely if he has been jailed for bribing politicians, then politicians should be jailed as well. And two years is not a long time for the damage that this corruption has done

[The Caped Cod]

I would love nothing more than to see the crooks of the FF dictator******************** tried, hung, drawn and quartered, but it will never happen. What politician, no matter the party is going to help inact a law punishing crooked politicians. It's like the Garda Ombudsmann an oxymoron if ever there was one.

[feargach]

Well, we are not talking about any kind of plan where we have to convince the existing government to go along with the idea. We're talking about a plan to be adopted by the politicians who will take power after the next election.

The latest results suggest that FF will probably not be in a position to veto anything in the next Dáil.

[feargach]

What politician, no matter the party is going to help inact a law punishing crooked politicians.

One who doesn't intend to be crooked?

Fine Gael and Labour have plenty of time to play around with their election candidates.

If some of their candidates intend to be crooked once power arrives, they can be dumped.

By the way, this is not about crookedness, I want to broaden it out to honest incompetence.

If a given policy results in a large collapse in revenue or a large jump in unemployment, I want it to involve jail for the ministers involved. Even if they took no bribes, even if they were trying their level best, but they were just too dumb for the task involved. I want it to mean jail to wreck the economy, just as it means jail if you fall asleep at the wheel, or screw up the wiring.

Of course politicians, like everyone else, want to live like toddlers without any consequences for bad behaviour, but why should we vote for that?

[Boggle]

By the way, this is not about crookedness, I want to broaden it out to honest incompetence.

Thats a bit much tbh. I'm all on for going after corrupt politicians but I'd rather see the laws we have actually enforced than have extra laws which will in due course also be ignored.