Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is crazy. We are discussing lobbying and how people involved in business who have close links with the Government of the day may gain favour. I am not stating such individuals will always gain favour, but they may gain it on occasion. Do we scrutinise matters to ensure everything is done in a proper manner? I do not believe we do. Will the Bill address that problem? Again, I do not believe it will. It was only brought to my attention yesterday that a personal friend of the Taoiseach had been appointed to the board of Sustainable Energy Ireland. Perhaps that man deserved to be appointed or perhaps he did not. Was this cronyism or was it in the best interests of the State? The difficulty is that we do not actually have a mechanism to check. What the people realise is that one can still buy favour. Allowing people to have access to Government officials without there being proper scrutiny of what occurs means that nothing is going to change. All the talk about reform on the back of which the Government came to office in 2011 has proved to be nothing short of a joke, as nothing has changed. The established parties have proved to be so similar that it is not funny.

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