Lobbying regulator concerns

Ireland’s first Head of Lobbying Regulation has urged those communicating with local authorities and public officials to consider whether they need to register lobbying activities and if so to do so before September 21st.

A county-by-county analysis of registrations on the lobbying register shows that while Co Sligo has 1.4% of the national population, only 1.1% of those on the lobbying register are from the county. In numerical terms, there are 17 Co Sligo based lobbyists registered out of a population of 65,357.

According to the Head of Ethics and Lobbying Regulation Sherry Perreault: “The Act covers lobbying about local authority matters including planning as well as national matters, it is surprising to see such low numbers of registrants in counties outside Dublin. Thirteen counties including Sligo have less than 20 lobbyists registered in the two years the Act has been in force. Of those, five counties have registrant numbers in single digits, and one – Leitrim – has none at all.

“It is hard to imagine that in two years, only a handful of people and businesses in those counties have lobbied their local councillor or TD, or communicated with a Minister or senior official.”

Ms Perreault said that for a communication to count as lobbying it must meet all steps of a Three Step Test: (1) the communication must be made by a person within scope of the Act, (2) it must be made to a designated public official, and (3) it must concern a “relevant matter” – the development, initiation or modification of policy, program or legislation, seeking funding, or – most broadly – the zoning and development of land.

“While most of the Act’s provisions would apply only to businesses, advocacy groups or representative bodies with a certain number of employees, anyone – including individuals, volunteers, residents groups, sports clubs, builders or planners that talks to their local councillor about zoning or development of land is required to register and submit returns of lobbying activity.”