Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

"Power and the money, money and the power, minute after minute, hour after hour" - Coolio might have been rapping about a "Gangsta's Paradise" back in 1995 but he could just as easily have been referring to politics around the world, including Irish politics and lobbying. Power and money tend to go hand in hand. We used to see it in the Galway races tent, and we still see it at fancy Covid restriction-breaking golf dinners and in the golden circle, the inner sanctum, and the revolving door of politicians, lobbyists, Attorneys General and Supreme Court judges.

It is all about who knows who, and who can influence policy.It is such a shame, is it not? Politics was supposed to have become more transparent and accountable. The days of the brown envelopes were supposed to have been behind us while corporate interests were expected to document and detail their meetings with public officials when seeking to influence policy. Unfortunately, many loopholes exist in the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015, an Act that is yet another example of the Government paying lip service to an important issue without giving it the teeth to impose sanctions and prosecute for breaches of the Act. If a group does not have any paid staff, it does not have to complete the thrice yearly lobbying returns. If a chairperson or director undertakes the lobbying, they do not have to report it at all.

With all legislation, we should welcome the opportunity to review it once a period of commencement and implementation has passed. We should be willing to reflect critically on the positives and the unintended consequences and to address any loopholes that were uncovered from commencement. It is ridiculous that we are still so reactive and have to wait until a story hits the media before we do something about it.

The recent case is that of Michael D'Arcy from Wexford. A former long-standing Fine Gael politician, Michael D'Arcy lost his seat in the general election in February 2020 and he was subsequently successful in his bid for a seat on the agriculture panel in the Seanad. Previously, as a Deputy, Michael D'Arcy was a member of the Oireachtas banking inquiry committee and he was also a Minister of State at the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, with special responsibility for financial services and insurance.

As a Member of the Twenty-sixth Seanad, Michael D'Arcy spoke on a number of items of legislation, including the Investment Limited Partnerships (Amendment) Bill 2020. On the Second Stage of the debate on this Bill, on 23 September, the then Senator Michael D'Arcy opened his speech by saying:

Sometimes we describe a Bill as a very technical piece of legislation or as boring. Unfortunately, this type of thing is boring, but we have to get through it, and the devil is very much in the detail in this case. We are talking about the private equity sector in respect of financial services for Ireland. As the Minister of State will be aware, the financial services sector is quite a large employer, of about 16,000 people currently. The sector has been arguing, for about four and a half to five years, that without this legislation it cannot advance the private equity side of investment in Ireland.

On Monday, 28 September 2020, just five days after his Seanad speech, the Irish Association of Investment Managers, IAIM, announced that it had "appointed former Minister of State with Responsibility for Financial Services, Michael D'Arcy as its new CEO". It was not so boring then. The official statement on its website states:

Mr D'Arcy will work closely with IAIM Chairman, John Corrigan, on the development of the IAIM strategic plan in the context of the challenges and opportunities facing the investment management industry. In his role as CEO, Mr D'Arcy will be responsible for re-setting the IAIM agenda and priorities, given the changing landscape post-Brexit.

When the expected furore happened over this appointment, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste said that Michael D'Arcy probably should have contacted SIPO, the Standards in Public Office Commission, to speak to it prior to resigning his post as a designated public official and taking up a chief executive role. He also should have adhered to the one-year cooling-off period before taking up such a post. The Taoiseach has ordered a review of the legislation to be carried out and Michael D'Arcy said he would not be involved in lobbying for his first year on the job. In response, Sinn Féin has brought forward this welcome Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2020.

This is not just about Michael D'Arcy as there are many instances of concern. Even more recently, the Government appointed Ms Geraldine Feeney to the board of SIPO. Ms Feeney was previously a lobbyist for the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP. We all remember that name as it was the NAGP's former president, Dr. Ó Tuathail, who was sent confidential documents by then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar. We can see why people talk about revolving doors and golden circles.

I welcome this Bill and I will be supporting it. The Bill seeks to amend the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 and will amend a number of sections of that Act. These amendments will provide for the implementation of some of the recommendations set out in the second legislative review of the Act by SIPO. Sections 11, 16, 18, 22 and 25 of the 2015 Act will be amended and a new section will be inserted relating to the duties of designated public officials. Of the 22 recommendations put forward in SIPO's second review, this Sinn Féin Bill would provide for the implementation of 12 of them. It is a pity that not all of the 22 recommendations are being brought forward. However, it is more disappointing that many sections of the SIPO review which was published in May 2019 state that these recommendations were put forward previously in its first review. Again, why must the Government always govern in a haphazard way? In this case, is it to wait and see what it can get away with, without being held to account?

See this speech in context