Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope Ms O'Reilly is well. I thank her for attending the Committee of Public Petitions and for briefing members on her annual report. I am interested in chatting to her about the accountability in decision-making. She mentioned in her opening statement references to information requests around inappropriate or opaque lobbying. Her report also talks about tobacco lobbyists. Obviously the EU is party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control "according to which it must prevent the tobacco industry from having a negative impact on public health policies". My assumption was that tobacco lobbyists are not welcome in Brussels but that may be more particular to health policy. This brings to mind the issue of fossil fuels lobbyists. I am aware it is not within Ms O'Reilly's remit but COP27 was attended by more than 600 fossil fuels lobbyists, which was more delegates than the combined total of the ten countries most impacted by climate change. We saw various comparisons drawn between COP and fossil fuel lobbyists. Arms dealers would not be seen at peace conventions or indeed tobacco lobbyists at health conferences. Returning to the European Parliament, Russian interests are barred from the European Parliament. When I think about fossil fuel lobbyists, many MEPs take information and guidance through events or briefing notes from fossil fuel lobbyists. Sometimes these are the likes of Eurogas, FuelsEurope, or Hydrogen Europe. These organisations have been called Trojan horses for the likes of Shell and other companies. If I believe fossil fuel lobbyists should be barred from the European Parliament, and that transparency of dealing with them is not enough given the climate crises we have to deal with, what can we learn from the experience of the tobacco rules? What works and what does not work in terms of those rules? I assume Ms O'Reilly will not make comment on whether we should bar fossil fuel lobbyists but my question is on what works and what does not work in terms of the tobacco rules.