Perhaps a record number of unaffordable houses? Is the Taoiseach comfortable with the speed at which top civil servants can move from highly influential posts and being custodians of sensitive information to being privately employed and very powerful individuals with extraordinary advantages over their competitors in the private sector? Is it not a scandal and grossly irresponsible for the Government to have no regulations in this area, which is unique in European terms?

Is it not deeply disturbing to see, for example, a former manager of South Dublin County Council within four weeks of resigning his post in December last year being employed as a lobbyist and consultant for a major developer facing High Court action over unauthorised developments in the same local authority area? How can the Taoiseach remain silent on this issue when his former adviser is now a director of Treasury Holdings, vying for the contract to build the national stadium, having been the head of the Campus and Stadium Ireland development and privy to all the original bidders and plans? How at this point is it still possible for the Taoiseach to say there is no particular need for regulations? Will he give some thought to this matter and introduce regulations, as are available in other jurisdictions, to ensure there is a healthy period of time between public servants occupying influential positions as custodians of sensitive information and being able to use that information in the private sector to essentially subvert the normal private tendering procedures?

I do not have many facts about the individual concerned.

The Sunday Business Post.

Nor do I wish to personalise the circumstances of the contractual arrangements. This issue was raised previously and there is no statutorily based rule that prohibits an individual leaving public service – Departments, agencies or local authorities – to take up these positions. If there was such an arrangement it would have to have statutory effect. There was an unwritten rule in the Civil Service that one should not leave and take up a position on files with which one was dealing previously. I am aware of one country which has a three or six month regulation, which is not very satisfactory. When the instance of another individual was raised some years ago it was found difficult to introduce such a rule or regulation. This is not something to which the Government will be immune because more people are leaving the public sector in the last decade. As a result of the seven year contract, people now leave at much younger ages than was the case previously. While this issue may not have been so prevalent some years ago, it is now. I cannot recall what the legal difficulties were previously. However, I will look into the matter and send a note to the Deputy.

I would remind the Taoiseach that in other jurisdictions, particularly in the UK, there is a two year cooling-off period, so to speak, as part of the Civil Service regulations. Will the Taoiseach agree that we need such a regulation? I am not impugning or saying there is an issue to be answered, other than to say that tribunals are ongoing. There is the situation of a former Government press officer who now faces one of the tribunals, which is not very flattering for him or the Government he served. Will the Taoiseach learn the lessons of the past and put in place the essential statutory regulations whereby top civil servants, or anyone who is a custodian of sensitive information, will have to observe a certain period before becoming employees of the private sector? Will the Taoiseach take on board the lessons in this country and other countries where there is a cooling-off period which is much longer—

The Deputy has become repetitive.

I have no difficulty checking out this matter. While an employer can introduce rules and regulations about what employees can or cannot do, if they leave that employment, particularly if they are in their forties or fifties, it would not be contractually easy to try to decide where or for whom they can or cannot work.

It has been done.

I accept it is not a good idea to have someone working on one side of the table today and on the other side tomorrow. I will have the issue considered to see if it is possible to deal with it, and I will send a letter to the Deputy.