Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that change is needed. As Minister, the Deputy will not find me defending a situation where somebody can go from holding a senior position in government one day, exercising important responsibilities, to very shortly afterwards moving to a position where he or she is directly interacting with and lobbying the previous employer. That is not something that should be allowed or can happen. The issue that has been identified is the need to have an appropriate sanction in place and an appropriate penalty. That is the issue we have sought to address. We have looked at a range of jurisdictions. In my view, Ireland compares quite well in already having a statutory basis for a cooling-off period. Where it is lacking and there is a gap currently is in regard to the enforceability of that cooling off period. SIPO has called that out in the past. We have conducted an in-depth review. I will work with the Deputy to tease out with her the logic and rationale for the conclusions that we have reached and I will, of course, listen to her perspective and point of view in that regard.

See this speech in context