Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, I am not but I find it hard to imagine lobbying of private secretaries being carried out within the terms of this Bill. I suppose it is possible but in practice, I cannot really envisage it. However, I consider senior local authority staff and people at assistant principal officer level and above to be crucial and it is very important that this be implemented as soon as possible.

I wish to raise a general point that I omitted to mention at the end of the debate on the last section. Perhaps this will come up later but I refer to the lobbied having a responsibility to tell people they should register. While I acknowledge we are not obliged to tell people, is there guidance or guidelines available? If someone makes an approach and is lobbying me, it might be useful in some cases to be obliged to remind the lobbyist that he or she should be registered because he or she might not then come back, which might suit all concerned. I do not know what help or guidance the Minister can offer in those circumstances.