Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

One of the concerns expressed very strongly by Deputies in the other House and by almost all of the stakeholders we dealt with, was that there should be clarity around who is in and who is out, that is, who is covered by this legislation. That is what I sought to do and that is why we fixed on an organisation with ten employees or more, lest there be any confusion about it. I wanted to avoid a situation where people would not understand whether they were covered or not. For example, we did not want to capture the normal interaction in business that a political representative would make because every Deputy and Senator is covered by this legislation. We had to decide, for example, whether somebody going into a politician's clinic and making a communication would be a registerable issue. We need to have some level of scale to make it an acceptable capturing of lobbyists.

Amendment No. 16 looks at the issue from the point of view of turnover rather than simply the number of employees. The point was made in the other House that a relatively small company with four or five employees might have a big turnover. I was concerned that this threshold would place a burden on lobbyists to submit audited accounts to the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPOC. Furthermore, turnover is not a fixed entity so a company could become registerable because of a slight increase in turnover over the course of a year, for example. Again, it all adds to the complexity and uncertainty about who is captured and who is not. It also makes it more difficult for the SIPOC to make determinations on companies as it would have to go through the company accounts to see what the turnover was and mistakes are highly likely in those circumstances.

In order to have certainty in this new legislation, which is ground breaking, I wanted to stick to the more clearly understood terms as set out in the Bill. I have said that I envisage this being reviewed after 12 months or so. We will see how it works out and if there is a need for an amendment at that stage, I would certainly approach it with an open mind, as I am sure would whoever is sitting in this seat at that point in time.