Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 271: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress made on the commitment in the programme for Government to consider legislation to regulate lobbyists. [20332/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Arising from previous research completed by the Institute of Public Administration in 2004, my Department commissioned further research by a Trinity College-Dublin City University joint team to establish a clear profile of formal systems for regulating lobbyists in public life in certain jurisdictions, thereby facilitating an assessment of their relevance to public life in Ireland. This research report, entitled Examining and Assessing the Regulation of Lobbyists in Canada, the USA, the EU Institutions, and Germany has been published electronically on my Department's website and copies of the report were placed in the Oireachtas Library in June 2007.

The Programme for Government includes a commitment to consider legislation to regulate lobbyists, and this will be taken forward having regard to the conclusions of the Trinity College-Dublin City University report and emerging developments at international level, such as the publication of the OECD's Lobbyists, Governments and Public Trust: Building a Legislative Framework for Enhancing Transparency and Accountability in Lobbying document.