Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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288. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 will be the primary source of reference for designated public officials on the way they interact with lobbyists; if compliance with this legislation will take precedence over any international recommendations on lobbying; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26427/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 (No. 5 of 2015) (the Act) will commence on 1 September 2015.

The Act is designed to provide information to the public about:

- Who is lobbying;

- On whose behalf is lobbying being carried out;

- What are the issues involved in the lobbying;

- What is the intended result of the lobbying;

- Who is being lobbied.

The Act provides for:

- The establishment and maintenance of a publicly accessible register of lobbying;

- Obligations on lobbyists to register and to provide information regularly about their lobbying activities, including, in the case of professional lobbyists, information about their clients;

- The introduction of a "cooling off" period during which lobbying activity may not be carried out by some former officials;

- The Standards in Public Office Commission (Standards Commission) to be the regulator of lobbying.

Under the Act, designated public officials are not subject to rules regarding the registration and reporting of lobbying. Their interactions when lobbied must be reported by the lobbyists in accordance with the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015. My Department in conjunction with the Standards Commission is currently in the process of drafting guidance to ensure that designated public officials understand how the system works, how they fit into it and their part in supporting the effective implementation of the arrangements. This guidance is available in draft form on . In addition, my Department and the Standards Commission are holding a series of information sessions for designated public officials and a session specifically for TDs and Senators has been arranged for Thursday 9 July in Leinster House.

It is my view that lobbying is an essential part of the democratic process. Organisations such as interest groups, representative bodies, industry, NGOs, charities and third party professional lobbyists all provide necessary input and feedback through communication of the views and concerns of the public to government. This interaction is a welcome and necessary element of policy development. I would urge public bodies to continue to actively facilitate and encourage such communications to the greatest extent possible.

The Act does not aim to prevent or inhibit lobbying activity. Its objective is to make the process more transparent while supporting the interaction of public bodies with all stakeholder organisations. I am a strong advocate of lobbying activity. I believe that lobbying is absolutely necessary in order to maintain a healthy and well-functioning democracy. The extent of lobbying activity is a good measure of an engaged citizenry but it should be open to public scrutiny as part of the desirable checks and balances in a democracy.

Transparency is our strongest weapon in discouraging attempts to seek to exert undue or improper influence on the conduct of policy formulation. There is a strong public interest in identifying "who is lobbying whom about what". My intention in designing and guiding this legislation to enactment was specifically to achieve this goal.

With regard to the specific point raised in the Deputy's question, I am very aware, for example, of the substantial work carried out by the OECD in analysing and assessing the regulation of lobbying drawing on international experience. Indeed, the OECD's principles on international best practice were strongly reflected in the approach adopted to the development of the Regulation of Lobbying Act, 2015. I am not, however, aware of specific and detailed recommendations from authoritative international organisations (such as the OECD) to which the Deputy's question refers.  Indeed, I understand that our Regulation of Lobbying legislation is considered by international experts as strongly reflecting an effective approach to substantially enhancing the transparency of the lobbying process.

Finally, I am aware that the Council of Europe's European Committee on Legal Co-operation is currently in the process of drafting a recommendation on the legal regulation of lobbying activities for members and my Department has contributed to this drafting process through the submission of views on preliminary drafts. My Department will continue to carefully monitor progress on this draft recommendation. Any final recommendation from this process would not in any event supersede the statutory position as set out in national legislation.