Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is an important issue. The Deputy is talking about requiring financial disclosure as part of the registration system. As I indicated, we engaged in a great deal of consultation on the Bill with lobbyists, users and a variety of groups. The consultation process highlighted the need to strike a balance between the real requirements of transparency and ensuring there was commercial confidentiality for some commercially sensitive information. Account must also be taken of the significant administrative issues involved in establishing consistent and comparable financial data which could be included in the register. This is particularly the case in relation to in-house lobbyists, of whose time only a small proportion is spent on lobbying and where such financial data are not currently collected. They might be doing a dozen other things at the same time.

The disclosure of financial data presupposes also that disclosure can give us an insight into the effectiveness of lobbying. We want to know this because we want to know in a transparent way who is influencing public policy. As we know, however, it is often not the amount of money spent by a lobbyist that is the most effective way to determine his or her impact. I am reminded of having reflected on the matter that this is too burdensome to put on people at the outset of the process. It would be resisted by lobbying companies and the normal lobbyists such as the IFA, the ICTU and others who lobby us as a matter of course. While I appreciate fully the intent of the amendment, I am not minded to accept it.