Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Regulation of Lobbying Bill 2013: Discussion with OECD

12:35 pm

Mr. Janos Bertok:

This is a very important issue, not necessarily relating to policing but lobbying. It takes two to lobby. I mentioned the role of the other side, which means the public officials and their role and responsibility, for example checking whether the person is registered. In this case, if the conversation goes beyond the norm between an MP and a public official and is of a different nature that should immediately be signalled and the person should be asked whether the conversation is now about lobbying. Automatically, that should be part of the registration and reporting. I do not call it policing but in some countries, such as Canada, there is an obligation on senior public officeholders to report such contact.

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