Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform

Registration of Lobbying Bill 2014: Committee Stage

2:30 pm

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:


In page 6, lines 27 to 35, to delete all words from and including “(1) For” in line 27 down to and including line 35 and substitute the following:“(1) For the purposes of this Act a person carries on lobbying activities if the person—
(a) makes, or manages or directs the making of, any relevant communications on behalf of another person in return for payment (in money or money’s worth) in any of the circumstances in which subsection (2) applies to that other person,
(b) makes, or manages or directs the making of, any relevant communications in any of the circumstances in which subsection (2) applies to the person, or
(c) makes any relevant communications about the development or zoning of land under the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2014.
(2) The circumstances in which this subsection applies to a person are that—
(a) the person has more than 10 full-time employees and the relevant communications are made on the person’s behalf,
(b) the person has one or more full-time employees and is a body which exists primarily to represent the interests of its members and the relevant communications are made on behalf of any of the members, or
(c) the person has one or more full-time employees and is a body which exists primarily to take up particular issues and the relevant communications are made in the furtherance of any of those issues.”

We had some debate about these matters and I listened to various suggestions as to how we could address them. I will speak now on amendments Nos. 6, 24 and 52. The Bill as published brings within its scope consultant lobbyists acting on behalf of a client, employers with more than ten employees and individuals with regard to development and zoning matters, that is, anyone lobbying in connection with a development or zoning matter. Amendment No. 6 aims to ensure that relevant communication by representative and advocacy bodies, that is those established to further a particular issue, will come within the definition of lobbying where the organisation has at least one employee. The proposed amendment will make it clear, therefore, that the exemption from registration for employers of up to ten employees will not apply to employers who are either representative or advocacy bodies. Concerns were expressed by some of the stakeholders we talked to during the very long consultative process, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Farmers Association, that while some representative bodies can have small numbers of staff, they can actually have a very substantial membership base. The amendment concerning advocacy bodies will allow bodies such as Transparency International Ireland to come within the scope of the Bill and is in line with the transparency objectives of the Bill.

Amendment No. 6 also clarifies that the reference to employees is full-time employees. Amendment No. 24 deletes section 5(3)(b) as this provision is now incorporated into the revised subsection (1) of section 5. I note that the next amendment from Deputy McDonald, amendment No. 24, and amendment No. 25 proposed by Deputy Fleming propose changes to section 5(3)(b) and will both, therefore, fall, if my amendment is passed, as the Chairman has already indicated. The proposed amendment No. 52 in section 7 is necessary consequent to the amendment of section 5(1) so that a definition of full-time employee is included in the Bill. The term full-time employee is defined by reference to section 7 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act of 2001.

Amendment No. 24 proposes an amendment to section 5, which will mean the deletion of section 5(3)(b), as also proposed by Deputy McDonald. I am proposing these amendments to ensure that relevant communication by representative and advocacy bodies, that is, those established to further a particular issue, will come within the definition of lobbying regardless of the number of employees they have. That was a point raised by a number of Deputies at Second Stage. The proposed amendments will make it clear that the exemption for employers of up to ten employees will not apply to representative or advocacy bodies.

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