Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's point in respect of a broad-based definition and moving away from the Canadian definition, which it has stepped back from. However, the Minister has exempted quite a number of different categories of communications, bodies and individuals, so he has very substantially pruned the scope of this. By the way, I accept the Minister's bona fides in so doing and I am not attributing any negative motive to that. It is consistent with the logic he has set out. However, I it is an absolute mistake to exempt wholly the implementation phase of public policy.

The Minister should bear in mind that at that phase, as at any other phase of public policy, for the communication to qualify it has to be communication of a certain nature. It is not nuts and bolts conversations on mundane day-to-day matters. This is a big mistake. I am at a loss to understand why the Minister would exempt such a critical part because while the influence and interaction at the level of conceiving policy and shaping it in theoretical or written form is one thing, the real action happens when policy is translated into action, initiatives, resources and money and the where and how of all that. That phase is as open and prone to quite aggressive lobbying by vested interests as any other stage.

I will press the amendment. The Minister may not agree with me today but as he has referred to the 12-month review and keeping an eye on matters at every juncture, this, critically, should be at the forefront of his mind. It is a mistake to exempt it. I am absolutely unconvinced by the Minister’s rationale. It does not stack up.

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