Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I will take the last question first. There is no national standard for cooling-off periods. For some people who cease to be politicians, there is never a cooling-off period. I do not know. People have engagements in different professions but there are certainly people who might at some stage have been practising barristers or solicitors or engaged in other areas of life. Indeed, one could have a legal cost accountant who in a former life was a practising member of the legal profession but has not been a practising lawyer for many years. I did not want to entirely close off people who clearly were not practising barristers or solicitors from the possibility of an appointment. The period of five years is not a magical number. It arose by looking from a common-sense perspective at what would be an appropriate period of years during which somebody did not practise. I have no particular emotional or theological attachment to five years. This engagement gives us an opportunity to reflect on that. The suggestion is that it be five years. That is the amendment we are now making. I have no difficulty with members giving further thought to that if they believe the period should be longer. I do not think it should be shorter. There would clearly have to be a gap between someone being a practising lawyer and assuming the possible status of a layperson. I am happy to say that when we come back on Report Stage, if Members of the Oireachtas have a cogent argument as to why it should be a somewhat longer period, I would be very happy to listen to it. This seemed a practical number of years. In the context of former civil servants or Secretaries General in various Departments, there is now an ethical standard that suggests that for a period of time - I cannot recall whether it is one or two years - one does not take up a position that would be in conflict with one's former career. There are some new provisions relating to Ministers. If Deputy Collins has a different view, I am happy to engage on that issue.