Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 41 relates to page 8, section 5(7), and proposes the deletion of lines 29 and 30. It refers to “relevant matters”, which means any matters relating to the initiation, development or modification of any public policy or of any public programme, the preparation of an enactment, or the award of any grant, loan or other financial support, contract or other agreement, or of any licence or other authorisation involving public funds, apart from matters relating only to the implementation of any such policy, programme, enactment or award or of a technical nature.

My concern relates to the fact that it is very often the implementation phase of any public policy or set of public policies that marks the difference between its success or failure, and how it works in real time. The implementation phase is just as likely to be subject to lobbying as any other phase in the policy deliberation and formulation process. I regard the measure as a fairly serious loophole. In any event I would like the Minister to explain the rationale for its inclusion in the legislation.