We provide a range of services in accordance with the provisions of four pieces of legislation for which the Standards in Public Office Commission is responsible:

  • Ethics in Public Office Acts 1995 and 2001;
  • Electoral Act 1997 (as amended);
  • Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Act 2014; and
  • Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015.

The services we provide include:

  • Ethics Acts
    • publish guidelines and provide advice on compliance with the legislation;
    • administer the disclosure of interests and tax clearance regimes;
    • investigate possible contraventions of the legislation;
  • Electoral Acts
    • publish guidelines and provide advice on compliance with the legislation;
    • administer and report on regulatory regimes for disclosure of political donations, election expenses, state financing of political parties and the registration of
    • “third parties”;
    • conduct enquiries as necessary;
  • Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices)(Amendment) Act
    • administer and report on expenditure of the parliamentary activities allowance;
  • Regulation of Lobbying Act
    • maintain an online lobbying register;
    • monitor compliance with registration and return provisions;
    • make decisions under certain provisions of the Act;
    • implement and maintain a code of conduct for persons lobbying;
    • provide guidance and assistance; and
    • investigate and pursue contraventions of the legislation.

Our work requires engagement with various stakeholders that include:

Ministers/Ministers of State

  • Members of the Oireachtas, i.e. TDs and Senators
  • Irish MEPs
  • Special Advisors to Ministers
  • Political Parties/Candidates
  • Local Authority elected officials and staff
  • Persons in designated positions and directorships in the civil and public service
  • Third parties
  • Corporate donors
  • Persons lobbying
  • Members of the public

As set out in our Statement of Strategy 2022 -2025, we aim for excellence and professionalism in the delivery of our services.  We strive to be an outward-facing customer centric organisation and to provide an accessible, efficient and effective service to our customers, which includes members of the public and the public bodies we work with.  We will strive to meet defined quality standards and continuously review our performance to ensure that our customers remain at the heart of everything we do. Our Service Users’ Charter sets out what you can expect from us when you do contact the Commission.

Contact by telephone

If you contact us by phone we will:

  • Answer your call promptly
  • Give you our name when we answer your call
  • Be courteous and helpful to you at all times
  • Answer your query in full
  • If we cannot do so immediately, we will take your details and call you back as soon as possible
  • Respond to all voicemail messages promptly

Written correspondence

If you send us a letter, email or online enquiry we will:

  • Acknowledge your correspondence within five working days
  • Ensure you receive a full reply to your written correspondence within 28 days. If we are unable to meet this deadline, we will contact you to explain why and let you know when to expect a full response
  • Give a contact name and contact details
  • Write to you in simple and clear language and avoid using technical terms

Visitors to the Office/Outreach events

 If you visit us in person we will:

  • Treat you with courtesy, respect your privacy and be fair in our dealings with you
  • Meet you at the agreed time if you have an appointment
  • Provide appropriate facilities for meetings
  • Keep our public offices clean and tidy and ensure that they meet health and safety standards

Service through Irish

We will make every effort to assist you if you wish to conduct your business with us through Irish. This    includes the following commitments:

  • Correspondence received in Irish will be answered in Irish
  • We will publish key documents including our Annual Reports in Irish and English
  • We will ensure that information leaflets aimed at the public are available in both Irish and English
  • An Irish version of our website will mirror as far as practicable the English version
  • We will meet our other commitments under the Official Languages Act as published on our website

Equality / Diversity / Disability / Privacy

  • We commit to dealing with you without discrimination or prejudice
  • We will aim to have our services and facilities easily available and accessible to you
  • The contact email for our Access Officer under the Disability Act is: accessofficer@sipo.ie
  • We will consider equality and human rights in all our work
  • In developing this Customer Service Charter, the Office has had regard to the considerations regarding eliminating discrimination, promoting equality and protecting human rights identified in section 42(1)(a)-(c) of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014

Complaints about customer service

If something goes wrong and you are not satisfied with our customer service, please tell us. This refers to the issue of customer care and service in how you were dealt with by our staff.

  • In the first instance, please raise the matter with the person you are dealing with in the Office, so that we can respond and try to deal with the matter as early as possible
  • If you are not happy with the response and wish to make a formal complaint about the standard of services you received from this Office, you can write to the Head of the Secretariat, Linda Joyce by email to: info@sipo.ie  
  • We aim to acknowledge such complaints in five working days and try to provide a full reply in 20 workings days

Please note that a disagreement over the outcome of matters considered by the Commission will not fall within the scope of this type of complaint.

Help us to help you

You can help us to give you a high quality service:

Please state your complaint as clearly and as concisely as you can

  • Please send us copies of relevant documents when submitting your complaint
  • Treat our staff and our service with respect
  • Make comments or suggestions about the service you receive
  • As part of our customer charter, we commit to dealing with users of our service professionally and with respect.  We also expect you to treat our staff and the service we provide with respect.  Our Reasonable Conduct Policy sets out how we expect people to interact with us and also explains how we manage unacceptable actions against our staff and our process. Here is a link to the policy.

Consultation and feedback

We are always interested to hear suggestions on how we can improve our service. If you would like to comment or make a suggestion please e-mail info@sipo.ie

Where to get more information

This document is available on our website www.sipo.ie. You can also find details of our other activities, policies and contact information on our website.

Where to find us

Our full contact details are available on the “Contact” webpage.

Our address is Standards in Public Office Commission, 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 W773. The Office is open Monday to Friday between 9.15 am and 5.00 pm.

Phone:

Sipo +353 1 639 5666

Lobbying +353 1 6395722

Email:

Sipo enquiries info@sipo.ie

Ethics and Electoral complaints complaints@sipo.ie     Lobbying enquiries info@lobbying.ie

 

 

How should I behave when making a complaint?

We understand that making a complaint/disclosure/appeal or request can be stressful and that, from time to time, this stress may show in how a person interacts with this Office. Our staff members know that managing these interactions is part of their job.

However, we expect people to act reasonably when interacting with our Office. Our staff are not expected to tolerate behaviour that is abusive, offensive, threatening or, due to the frequency of contact, takes up too much time and resources that could be spent assisting other customers.

What kind of behaviour is unacceptable?

The following types of behaviour are not acceptable:

  • Unreasonable persistence

If a file has been closed by this Office, it is unreasonable persistence to refuse to accept the decision or insist that another member of staff looks again at the case.

  • Unreasonable demands

An unreasonable demand can include a demand for action regarding a matter that is outside of the Office’s remit, looking for a solution that is not realistic or is disproportionate, demanding that a specific person must/must not deal with your case, or demanding that your case be dealt with within a specific timeframe or ahead of other customers.

  • Unreasonable lack of co-operation

This may be demonstrated by a failure to clearly define the matter you are raising with the Office, presenting large volumes of documentation in a disorganised way, changing the substance of the issue while the Office’s process is ongoing, withholding information and not being honest about facts. It also includes non-cooperation by you with the Office, which may hinder, obstruct or delay the process.

  • Unreasonable arguments

Unreasonable arguments should not be made to this Office. Examples include exaggerating issues, presenting irrelevant arguments, insisting your version of events is accepted as fact where there is no objective evidence to support it, or refusing to consider other versions of events.

  • Unreasonable behaviour

Unreasonable behaviour includes multiple phone calls, emails or letters about the same matter, threats of violence, abuse of the Office staff, rude or aggressive conduct, sending profane imaging and attempting to provoke staff into engaging in unnecessary and time-wasting argument. Inflammatory statements and unsubstantiated allegations are also considered to be abusive behaviour.

Please note if emails are received with profanities and/or unacceptable images, that such emails will not be acknowledged and your correspondence will be delayed, because they are automatically blocked by our firewall. If these emails persist the email address will be blocked.

Written correspondence

We will not accept correspondence that is abusive or threatening to staff. We will not respond to any correspondence containing such language.

Telephone calls

We will tell the person if we think their language during telephone calls is rude and offensive and ask them to stop using such language. Staff have the right to terminate the telephone call if the behaviour continues.

What happens if I behave in this way?

If we consider your behaviour to be unreasonable, we will tell you why and ask you to change it.

Unreasonable conduct may include one or two isolated incidents or may be the accumulation of incidents or behaviour over a period of time. If the unacceptable conduct continues or constitutes a serious risk (such as threatening a member of staff with violence), we will take action to restrict the complaint’s contact with our offices and staff.

This decision will only normally be taken after a more senior staff member has reviewed the situation. Restrictions will be appropriate and in line with the nature of the behaviour. The options we are most likely to consider are:

  • asking you to contact us by letter only
  • asking you to only make contact with a named staff member
  • asking you to call by telephone only on certain days and times
  • limiting your access to the office
  • additional correspondence relating to the same matter is read and then filed but no response is provided
  • as a final option, terminating all contact with you if this behaviour persists (the Director General will make this decision)

In all cases, we will write to tell you why we believe your behaviour is not reasonable and what action we propose to take. If the behaviour is so extreme that it threatens the immediate safety and welfare of the staff of the Office or others, we will consider other options. These could include, reporting the matter to An Garda Síochána or instigating legal action. In such cases, we may not give you warning of that action.

Regardless of your behaviour, our staff will act respectfully towards you and take an impartial attitude to the issues you have raised with this Office.

In developing this Reasonable Conduct Policy, the Office has had regard to the considerations regarding eliminating discrimination, promoting equality and protecting human rights identified in section 42(1)(a)-(c) of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.