Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

CIE is not a public body and would not be exempt, which means that example would fall. I will return to the principle in any event. We are discussing lobbying, and not every type of communication made within a body is relevant, such as when a principal officer speaks to an assistant principal or the Secretary General of a Department speaks at the weekly management advisory committee meeting. Is it lobbying when he speaks about policy direction? Of course it is not, and that would be captured by the baldness of the amendments before us. There is an inescapable logic to what I am saying.

I will not even get into some of the points made by Deputy Fleming. He oscillates from the opinion that there is no purpose at all to the idea that the legislation should capture everything. This has a discrete focus and takes in international best practice on how to deal with the lobbying issue. If my proposal does not hold water, there is no lobbying legislation on the planet that would hold water, as they are all modelled on the same set of principles that are practical, workable and good.

We must bring people with us in this groundbreaking legislation. It will certainly be expanded in future, but I do not want to stifle it at birth by making it unworkable and impractical. That is why I cannot accept the amendments.

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