Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Bertók. I hope everybody is having a good time in the château. I have happy memories of that.

Lobbying is a symptom of a deeper illness in public policy and we should dig down into the symptoms. Typically, I suppose these are merely the guys who get caught. We have a culture of regulatory capture, rent seeking, insider or outsider model of government and clientelism, and when one adds all those up, most countries are effectively bankrupt because if one gives in to all the pleas made, one must go into borrowing, etc.

We have a particular problem in banking, construction, agriculture and transport, and I wonder whether Mr. Bertók has any sectoral thoughts on it. Those are really huge. We also have a problem of a weak Parliament and a very strong Executive. Has Mr. Bertók suggestions on how Parliament could strengthen its grip on these persons? Government has moved away so much from elected representatives to officials and we have got a very powerful ministerial system.

How does one keep lobbying open? Should we have the right of access for other Members of Parliament for when pressure groups meet Ministers? Should the meetings in Parliament be open to members of all parties - Opposition, Independents, whatever - when somebody is in here lobbying for something?

I have a particular concern about the success of tax lawyers and accountants. The OECD is submitting to the G20 today some material on massive tax avoidance, which is a perverse form of lobbying which causes all sorts of problems for exchequers, and I commend the OECD on that initiative. We have got to a stage where robbing Peter to pay Paul usually will have the support of Paul, Paul's lobbyists and his accountants, but it leads to bankrupt countries. I hope Mr. Bertók will address the lobbying as a symptom of a much deeper malaise in public policy.

I am delighted with the initiative and I thank Mr. Bertók for his reports. We spent three days interviewing bankers here and that very much determines how we feel at this point. I thank Mr. Bertók for the initiative.