Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Nash on bringing forward this legislation and affording us another opportunity to deal with the issue of lobbying. In fairness to the Minister of State, he acknowledged the lack of enforcement in regard to this matter and the need for such enforcement. This is not the first time I have spoken on this issue. My colleague, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, referred to the legislation she and Deputy Doherty brought forward. We welcome some aspects of Deputy Nash's Bill, particularly the proposal regarding the cooling-off period. Deputy Mairéad Farrell put it really well when she said that we need to shut the revolving door between politics and big business and lobbyists. There is a general perception that such a revolving door is in action, which is possibly sometimes unfair. We leave ourselves open to that perception when we do not close off these particular loopholes and problems. As Deputy Mairéad Farrell said, our party is in favour of a cooling-off period of two years rather than one.

I am very interested in the Minister of State's comment to the effect that a review of this issue has been carried out and his reference to a memorandum that will be brought to Cabinet before the summer recess. We need action as soon as possible. Whether that is by way of this legislation, Deputy Mairéad Farrell's Bill or a third legislative proposal does not really matter, so long as it reflects the significant information we already have. We know the recommendations SIPO has made on this matter. They just need to be implemented. As I said, the public's perception of the connection between politics and lobbying is not good. That has arisen because of things that happened in this State in the past that show a crossover between big business, the insurance lobby, the banking sector and politics. It is entirely necessary to separate politics from those interests.

When speaking on this issue previously, I made the point that accountability needs to happen at governmental level and more broadly at political level. People expect that to be done. I also made the point that I do not always get caught up in the idea of absolute accountability and transparency. I accept that we live in a world of grey and, from time to time, there is a necessity to get issues dealt with from the point of view of benefiting the public. What we have, however, and what is seen to be happening, is a connectivity between politics and a power base involving big business and elites. We need to ensure that we sever this connection in reality, as well as the perception of it. I also said in previous discussions that there is an element of people possibly not being overly concerned about this issue if we were delivering for them on the issues that matter. We all know what those issues are. We are at the tail end of the pandemic and we need to restore as many businesses as possible and continue whatever supports have been given to date to ensure business owners, families and the rest of society are supported. We know the difficulties there are for people in the taxi industry, aviation, hospitality, entertainment and many other sectors. The list goes on. We need to ensure we deliver for those people and we also must deliver on housing and healthcare.

What Deputy Nash is proposing in this Bill, and what was proposed previously by Deputies Mairéad Farrell and Doherty, is very simple. It is about ensuring that we clearly separate politics from big business lobbyists. We can do that very easily and it is worthwhile and absolutely necessary to do so. I put it to the Minister of State and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, that it is just a matter of getting it done as quickly as possible. It is a very simple request and we must deliver it.

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