Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I can see the logic to what the Minister of State and Deputy McAuliffe said. The issue I have with that is that it could be several years until the lobbying legislation is updated. This is live now in terms of what is going to happen in this area and, if we did make this change to this legislation, it would be very much in the public interest. It then means that when the lobbying legislation is being updated and reviewed, people could look at what we have done in this Bill and it could help to move it in the right direction. Public confidence in what happens is very important, especially because, until now, the process around what happens has been developer-led. I appreciate this is an attempt to put a framework on it so that it is plan-led. However, putting in these sorts of measures would be a good start in terms of building public confidence and, in an administrative sense, as was said, would reduce the burden.