Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her amendment. She brought forward a Private Members' Bill on behalf of Sinn Féin. I acknowledge her work in that regard and the amendments she has put forward today with a view to, as she sees it, strengthening the Bill.

Section 2 of the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 obliges the Minister to conduct a review of the operation of the legislation every three years and make a report of the findings of each review along with the conclusions drawn from same to the Houses of the Oireachtas. There have been three reviews of the Act since it was enacted in 2015. Section 2 of the Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2022 amends section 2 of the Act to allow for the period between statutory reviews of the Act to be extended from three to five years. The Deputy's amendment proposes to reset the period between statutory reviews to three years and allows for a shorter timeframe if the Minister deems it appropriate.

Following my Department's recent in-depth review of the 2015 Act, I have decided that the review period should be five years for the following reasons. This legislative provision must supplement other provisions for scrutinising the impact of legislation. Like all legislation, this amending legislation will be subject to post-legislative scrutiny after enactment. There is an in-built review after one year. The experience of the statutory reviews of the 2015 Act has been that conducting a review every three years does not allow enough time to see the impact of changes to the legislation. The Standards in Public Office Commission has stated that it would not object to an increase in the intervals at which such reviews take place provided such intervals remain reasonable. Furthermore, my officials keep in close contact with the Standards in Public Office Commission on the operation of the legislation and the formal statutory review process. There would be nothing to prevent my Department conducting a review within an earlier timeframe if the situation warranted it. Therefore, I do not propose to accept the amendment at this time.