Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste to the House and also welcome Michael Flatley and his guests. I note that he is a guest of Senator Aidan Davitt. I was always wondering how he was good at dancing around difficult situations and now I know how that has happened.

To follow on from what my colleagues have said in regard to the representative bodies, I agree with them. They believe this legislation is gagging them and depriving them of an opportunity to represent their members fully.I wish to make a technical point, having listened to the conversations here, regarding a member of the Defence Forces who becomes a director of a community and voluntary organisation. As the Tánaiste is aware, in order to become a director of such an organisation, one has to state one's occupation. The men and women of the Defence Forces throughout the length and breadth of this country are involved in community and voluntary organisations and are pivotal members of those organisations. If the organisation of which a member is a director is lobbying politicians, where does that leave the Defence Forces member in the context of this legislation? My layman's reading of the situation, although Senator McDowell may be able to elaborate further on this, is that if a member is a director of a voluntary organisation that is lobbying politicians for funding for that organisation, he or she is in breach of this legislation. That is my layman's view on it and I would be interested in hearing the Tánaiste's view.