Former office holders and some public officials should be barred from lobbying to influence public policy for a 'cooling-off period' after they leave office, recommendations to the Government on its proposed regulation of the industry have said.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin today published the 60 submissions received during a public consultation process on options for an effective regulatory system for lobbying in Ireland.
The Programme for Government contained a commitment to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, and rules concerning the practice of lobbying.
Dozens of bodies, including charities, public relations consultants, business groups, companies and advocacy organisations made submissions during the process initiated as part of that commitment.
Fianna Fáil submitted its own lobbying bill, which it published in January, and called on the Government to coordinate with the EU on a mandatory, EU-wide register of lobbyists. The party said it favoured the establishment of a “mandatory, publicly available lobbyist register”, as well as a code of conduct to help “foster a culture of integrity”.
“Creating a clear regulatory framework that instils and upholds a culture of integrity and openness is essential to revamping the Irish political system,” the submission said.
“The potential incidents of gross lobbying corruption at home and across the EU and the subtle dominance of the political process by a small number of stakeholders to the exclusion of others needs to be directly tackled in overhauling the Irish political system.”
Anti-corruption organisation Transparency International Ireland favoured the introduction of a statutory public affairs register that would require any individual or organisation that has been offered or received income to influence legislation or public policy in any given three-month period to file an online return to the Standards in Public Office Commission.
It also favoured criminal and civil penalties for knowingly filing a false return, or failure to file a return.
The body said the dual aims of the public affairs register should be to “reliably detect and deter efforts to traffic in influence” and “to help the public better understand how public policy is formed and influenced”.
It said that, ultimately, knowing who is or who is not a ‘lobbyist’ was less important than knowing how those lobbied came to their decisions.
A number of charities expressed concern that their charitable status might be affected as a result of an obligation to register as lobbyists.
Age Action said it believed there needed to be a separate register for charities engaged in advocacy. This should be done in consultation with the Revenue Commissioners to ensure that registration on the charity advocates register did not compromise an organisation’s charitable status.
The Free Legal Advice Centre, Social Justice Ireland, St Vincent de Paul and the Irish Hospice Foundation expressed similar concerns.
Business body Ibec said fair and transparent access by “all relevant stakeholders” to Government and policy makers at appropriate levels was required “to ensure a balanced and effective policy debate”.
It said the introduction of a register of lobbyists was one way of “better capturing the interactions that Government has with external stakeholders”. It said a register must be introduced for the right reasons and in a way that promotes rather than hinders quality engagement.
Ibec said a clear definition of "lobbyist" must be agreed upon, alongside other definitions and appropriate exemptions, before such a register is introduced.
Tobacco manufacturer John Player, in its submission, said it rejected suggestions from tobacco control advocates that the industry should be excluded from the regulatory consultation process. “This would be in breach of basic, fundamental principles of democracy and the internationally accepted principles of good governance and better regulation,” the company said.
The Irish Cancer Society said that under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control “engagement with the tobacco industry should be limited to only where it is strictly necessary i.e. in order to effectively regulate tobacco products and the tobacco industry itself”.
It said engagement with the industry must be transparent and that written records, accessible to the public, should be kept of any meetings.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will now develop a policy paper on the issue and said it would organise a conference in the late spring to provide a further opportunity for interested stakeholders to contribute to the development of policy in this area.
Minister of State for Public Service Reform Brian Hayes said the Government hoped to publish a new Bill in the autumn, with a view to having it enacted within the first quarter of next year. He said it was an ambitious timeframe but “we need to get this right”.