Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last year I raised, not in this committee but in another one, and in the context of the Finance Act generally, the question of the application of the Regulation of Lobbying Act within the Department of Finance, where, as the Minister of State will be aware, Ministers and certain levels of officials are designated. I had a problem with the way in which the Department of Finance is implementing and addressing the Act in that what I understand now happens is that general letters are written, which are received by low-level officials, who are not designated officials. The then Minister indicated to me - others might remember part of the discussion on the Finance Act - that he was minded to address any difficulties, but I am not aware of anything being done over the past year to address an obvious gap in the legislation. Who at this point in time is a designated official in the Department or the Revenue Commissioners, and at what level are they in the Department and the Revenue Commissioners, for the purposes of the Regulation of Lobbying Act? The finance committee, knowing and having some general information about lobbying, would give us greater insight into how and why some changes come about. In some cases there may be valid commercial strategies that really do stand up. In other cases it is frankly very difficult to understand.