Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We will come to the issue of the nature of the sanctions, that is, whether they are administrative or criminal, in a moment. I note two of the Deputy's amendments have been ruled out in the context of section 9. In essence, my position on amendment No. 7 is it proposing to impose obligations on designated public officials. We are all practising politicians and are contacted many times a day by different means. For an onus to be put on us to in some way filter or assess who we should or should not be engaging with is impractical and not workable. The onus should be on the person doing the lobbying to make the returns and ensure they are fully transparent and in full compliance with the Act. It would make our job impossible if every time there is a meeting request we have to go checking whether the person who wants to meet us is in full compliance with the Act, is registered and so on. Our job is complex and busy enough without imposing those obligations on people who are elected. The obligation should be on those who are doing the lobbying.