Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Campbell. When Dr. Gilheany was talking about lobbying, I could not help remembering my experience in 2012 with the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. At that stage, the CMO was adamant there would be no industry representatives on the working group. They were kept out completely. As a Minister of State at the time, I did not meet any of them, but I will say that every other Minister was lobbied by them. The lobbying concerned everything from agriculture - in the context of food exports - to business. IBEC and Diageo representatives were in all the time. They lobbied by means of every mechanism possible. Does Dr. Gilheany believe there is a need to tighten up lobbying regulations in this area? We have made some progress in recent years but lobbyists are getting around it. There seems to be a cohort of people who move seamlessly from being ministerial advisers to being lobbyists for big business. Is there a need to change or tighten up the law in this area?