Seanad debates

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Commencement Matters

Lobbying Reform

10:30 am

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the moment the Department is expediting a number of things we need to do in respect of our political progress. It is important to recognise that the public has a high degree of trust and faith in the system and in the integrity of the system. As we make important changes that we need to make, such as establishing an electoral commission and modernising our electoral register, which are two projects happening in tandem at the moment, we have to make sure we are protecting the integrity of that system. A number of things are being expedited and we are doing a regulatory impact assessment, RIA, on the establishment of an electoral commission. That will be launched in a couple of weeks and will run through into the first or second quarter of 2019. It will be a public consultation on four different proposals for an electoral commission and what powers it might have.

We are going to have a wide debate during that public consultation on things such as definitions, what should be permitted as expenditure, who should be allowed from outside of our country to donate or spend money, inside or outside of election times, and how these things are defined. I, and most people who have been consulted on this, believe that we should not go for a big-bang approach to establishing an electoral commission. We should instead phase it in over time. Going through that public consultation and debate might allow us then to establish a list of our priorities for reform.

As we progress reform to the stage of establishing an electoral commission, perhaps over a period of two years after the end of the public consultation in the first or second quarter of next year, what are the priorities if we are not going to wait until the electoral commission has been established and everything is done? If we are going to do it in a phased approach, what are our priorities? We will have space to consider that in the short period in front of us. It is not the intention of the Act to have any kind of chilling effect on civil society engagement. Senator Ruane noted two recent examples where civil society has been the driving force and has brought the politicians behind it and on board to a successful result. I used to work in the area of international arms control where absolutely nothing would have happened with the ban on landmines were it not for civil society on the international stage. Many Irish organisations played a fundamental role in that.

I know directly from that experience, as well as the more recent experiences we have had here in Ireland, the importance of civil society. We do not want to have a chilling effect. We want transparency on what is happening and an understanding of what is allowed and what is not allowed. I know we need to look at the regulation of spending or a definition of "political purposes", and we will. I just do not want to look at it in isolation. I also do not want any delay. I hope that over the next three to four months we will, through that public consultation and then as the Oireachtas, establish a roadmap for priorities to get to a point where we then have a statutory, fully fledged electoral commission. I hope we can come to an understanding and a timeline for that during the process.

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