Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this amendment. The Minister and Deputy Shortall will be aware of my own Bill and the amendments I submitted on Committee Stage, which were not accepted, which proposed to introduce criminal sanctions for criminal infringements. As I argued then, I do not believe administrative sanctions would be a strong enough deterrent. I also proposed shortening the review period of the legislation because as I pointed out then, lobbying is a fast-paced industry and technology develops quickly. Communication can be fast and often anonymous. We thrashed all that out on Committee Stage. I feel it is important to mention it here again. A report produced after three years on the impact of the sanctions and the commission's capacity to implement these should reveal whether they are working, so I support the amendment.

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