Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome, as always. I give the Bill a partial welcome. The lobbying regime has come in for strong criticism in the past. There has clearly been a revolving door between Government and big business. The Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, has long called for reforms and made numerous submissions to Government. Unfortunately, Government long ignored these calls. It was forced to introduce this Bill following the public outcry when former Minister of State Michael D'Arcy attempted to take up employment with the lobbying organisation for the Irish funds industry. This would have been in breach of the one-year cooling-off period. He had not sought a special exemption from SIPO and there are currently no sanctions for breaching the period. The regime also permits former Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas special access to Leinster House without any requirement to sign in or any records being kept. Brian Hayes, a former Fine Gael Minister of State and now with the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, is a noteworthy example of this.

D'Arcygate also led to the introduction of Sinn Féin's Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2020, which is stronger than the one before us because it would have enacted 13 of the recommendations SIPO made to the then Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2016 and 2019. Professor Gary Murphy told the finance committee the enactment of the Sinn Féin Bill would not only improve transparency and accountability but also Ireland's international reputation, which is something that is badly needed. It was also endorsed by Transparency International Ireland, especially as it extends the cooling-off period from one year to two years, which is considered best international practice.

The Government’s Bill broadens the scope of the rules to ensure certain business groups fall within the scope of the Act, regardless the of number of their employees, and requires members of such groups to be named on lobbying returns to ensure the groups do not avoid the requirement to register. We, of course, welcome this. It makes breaches of the cooling-off period a civil offence, which means sanctions could include a caution or reprimand and a monetary penalty of up to €25,000 or a prohibition from lobbying of up to two years or both. Interestingly, the finance committee recommended consideration be given to making a breach a criminal offence, and indeed the Sinn Féin Bill would have done so. The present Bill does not extend the cooling-off period to two years, despite this being international best practice and a recommendation of the finance committee and the experts who appeared before it. The Sinn Féin Bill would have done this. The Government Bill will not ensure special exemptions from the cooling-off period will be made public. This was a recommendation of the pre-legislative scrutiny report and SIPO and something the Sinn Féin Bill would have done. I find it extraordinary that when exemptions are made, they would not be made public. How on earth does the Government justify that? It will not change the special privileges enjoyed by former Oireachtas Members, despite this being a clear recommendation of the pre-legislative scrutiny report. The Bill will extend the review period for the Act from the current three years to five years. Amendments to the lobbying regimes will always be necessary as lobbying tactics and strategies evolve to circumvent the objectives of the legislation. Longer review periods are slower to address potential weaknesses and Sinn Féin believes this is a retrograde step.

In summary, there is a revolving door between politics and big business that undermines confidence in the system. People are rightly concerned this Government, like previous ones, is more responsive to lobbyists working on behalf of special interests than it is to voters. Thejournal.ieidentified 91 individuals who were designated public officials, DPOs, under section 22 of the Act. In 62 cases, former special advisers acted as lobbyists and often lobbied their former ministerial colleagues. In some instances, this was in breach of the cooling-off period. Thejournal.ieidentified 38 individuals who were formerly prescribed DPOs but who had failed to mention it on their lobbying returns, and these represented in excess of 300 entries. Fine Gael is especially at fault here. The Uber Leaks files revealed Fine Gael inserted text written by Uber itself into its 2016 general election manifesto. Ed Brophy, who was formerly a special adviser to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, now works as head of public affairs for Amazon. In 2020, he was lobbied by Amazon. Within months of leaving his position, he had lobbied senior advisers to the three Coalition leaders on housing and energy policies. Just a week ago, the Business Postrevealed a firm created by Paudie Coffey, a former Fine Gael Minister of State at the Department with responsibility for housing, and Paul Fox, an ex-special adviser, was hired to lobby on behalf of Didier de Witte, who is a Belgian businessman convicted for evading more than €1 million in tax.

Our Regulation of Lobbying (Amendment) Bill 2020 was introduced in the wake of D’Arcygate. As with our Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2021, which was another vital mechanism for transparency and accountability, there was a chance to ensure we had the strongest protections possible to try to close the revolving door. The Bill before us could have tried to put a stop to such things, but instead it does the bare minimum. This is another missed opportunity by the Government. The recommendation to increase the cooling-off period to two years was ignored, despite it coming from Transparency International Ireland, Professor Murphy and SIPO. The use of criminal rather than civil sanctions would have sent a real message and acted as a serious deterrent. The Brian Hayeses of this world will continue to enjoy special privileges. We will remain in the dark as to why certain individuals, like Ed Brophy, were given a special exemption from the cooling-off period.