Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join previous speakers in welcoming this important and overdue Bill. I congratulate the Minister on its introduction. He did not face an easy challenge but his personal commitment to this issue has been evident. As he stated, this legislation is part of a suite of reform measures. I view the Bill in that context.

I must confess that I have only given the legislation a cursory glance and do not, therefore, claim to be an expert on lobbying. I will ask a few questions to ensure I can fully support the passage of the Bill. I will do so because it is important to clarify the intentions behind the Bill and to be clear about the problem we are trying to solve, the behaviour we will not tolerate and the scope of the proposals. We need to ensure the legislation is fit for purpose and will achieve its objectives. As the Minister noted, we must achieve maximum transparency without adding an undue administrative burden.

We all know from experience in this House that whereas good organisations will fully comply with the forthcoming regulations, others will navigate a course on their borders.

I see it in the House when Senators must declare their interests. Last year a colleague declared having shares in a company. I decided to check that up and while it was technically true, it was misleading. The Senator was an active director of the company. That would have been a much more accurate statement. We have to be very careful that we catch the behaviour we are trying to catch and do not allow some people to skirt the law. The Minister raised the issue and I learned a new word in preparation for today’s debate, namely, "astroturfing", which is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or an organisation to make it appear that it comes from the grassroots. The Minister rightly cited organisations such as the Irish Farmers Association and St. Vincent de Paul, which are very active with their grassroots. If somebody who was passionately involved with an organisation raised an issue with me I would not say that is the type of activity we are trying to stop. I also thought of Uplift which is set up as a campaigning organisation. It is there to activate individuals. This raises questions.

On the other side of the argument, Senator Byrne mentioned the tobacco industry. The same applies to alcohol. I see the drinks industry paying people to activate local networks so that the campaign appears to come from local communities’ concerns about alcohol sponsorship and alcohol. I want to catch that activity. It is not appropriate. It is not comparable to a St. Vincent de Paul volunteer who wants to be involved. I understand the difficulty in capturing that but I am concerned about organisations paying people to activate local networks for a consortium of drinks companies. An individual drinks company does not have to declare this because it is contributing money to another organisation to carry out the activity. We need to catch that type of activity. The public will think it is a groundswell of opinion from the localities when in fact it is the drinks industry protecting itself.

I am also concerned about section 9, Register of Lobbying, and section 5, Meaning of carrying on lobbying activities. This was partially addressed in the Dáil. I want to ensure that if one is included on the register, no Minister or public body will construe that as extinguishing or limiting negatively one’s entitlement to table amendments or be awarded grants or financial supports. There was some assurance that the Revenue Commissioners and the charity regulator have confirmed and will publicise that lobbying is a legitimate activity for charities and does not compromise their status. That is very positive. There are not-for-profit organisations which are not registered as charities. How will those organisations be affected when they publicise or do their work? I would not like to see unintended consequences from this. The Minister said some people will get a shock when the Act comes into force. I want the right people to get a shock but I do not want us to stifle some of the good work of not-for-profit organisations. I am considering an amendment for Committee Stage but I would be very happy if I could speak privately to the Minister about my concerns.