Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 68:

In page 12, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following:"(9) This section shall not apply to unpaid volunteers of an organisation that is otherwise a registered person for the purposes of this Act.".

This amendment refers to the returns to be made by registered persons, organisations, lobby groups, lobbyists or organisations that have lobbying carried out. The Minister will appreciate this. We understand the full details of what has to be included in the Schedule and I note that the Minister has already worked with major voluntary organisations with a view to seeing how the legislation will work in practice to help him with guidelines. My amendment is very clear. I am asking that a subsection be included relating to the returns to be made by registered persons to provide that the section does not apply to unpaid volunteers of an organisation that is otherwise a registered person for the purposes of the legislation.
An obvious one that comes to mind is the IFA which will have a system in place as a registered organisation and comply completely. We have all met the secretary and chairman of the county committees who are full-time farmers. How they get time to do all of this, God alone knows. The same could happen with members of trade unions or any other group. The group working on the dreaded EirGrid pylons might register as a lobbyist group if it were to retain an employee. One meets volunteers every day of the week or volunteers in an area might come to us with a local concern. It is pure voluntarism involving ordinary citizens expressing their interest in an area. They know that their national organisations will be registered and making official returns. The Minister has noted that when he is abroad, he may bump into someone at a shopping centre who will refer to something in the Finance Bill or another issue.