JOHN LEE
Lobbyists are not the real enemy at Leinster House
WHEN the late PJ Mara swept in the Merrion Square entrance of Leinster House in his black Jaguar XS he was always conspicuous. As the 6ft 3in man with trademark glasses stepped from the car, dressed in sumptuous suit, often a loud pinstripe but always supplied by Henry Poole of Savile Row, there were few in the parliamentary complex who did not note his arrival. He liked it that way, for image was important to PJ. We met at his car to go for lunch just before the 2014 local elections and I noticed a baby seat in the back (he’d just fathered a child at the age of 71). He laughed when I said: ‘That’ll ruin your image PJ.’
When I first got to know him, in 1995, he was three years out of his job as Government Press Secretary and had set himself up as a public affairs consultant and lobbyist. He was lobbying for the Sonas consortium which was trying to build a casino at the old Phoenix Park racecourse.
He offered to take me for a pint in Leinster House (I chose a pub). He told me that former senators and TDs had full access to Leinster House, its private restaurant, bar and other facilities, including parking.
PJ was appointed to the Seanad by friend and taoiseach Charles Haughey twice. PJ was never elected to office but he enjoyed full access until the day he died. And PJ made very good use of it, being paid to influence politicians on behalf of private companies.
LAST week, the Office of the Information Commissioner released the names of the organisations and companies being signed into Leinster House by politicians – but not the names of the visitors. The Sunday Times had tried to get the details under Freedom of Information legislation.
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the cross-party body that runs Leinster House, went to court last year to stop the release of the names of lobbyists. The Oireachtas argued people being signed in to Leinster House had a constitutional right to privacy. Revealing the names would be a breach of data protection legislation. It also warned that some of those visiting politicians may be whistleblowers.
If you had sensitive information that you wanted to give to a politician – information that could threaten your livelihood or even your life – would you breeze up to Leinster House to meet the TD?
I have met many whistleblowers in many places, from suburban pubs to small village cafés that do
not serve skinny lattés. I have never met one in the Dáil who wanted to remain anonymous.
Not identifying ANY individual entering Leinster House because one of them may be a whistleblower is a ridiculous, and ultimately cynical, argument.
The Irish political system is addicted to secrecy. The system is one vast conspiracy of non-disclosure. It has been dragged towards transparency only because the rest of the civilised world has gone that way. Politicians and bureaucrats, given the option, wouldn’t even publish salaries. They still don’t give full disclosure on politicians’ expenses, despite senior politicians having disgraced themselves on financial matters.
In 2014, after an investigation by this newspaper, Ivor Callely was sentenced to five months in prison for fraudulently claiming mobile expenses while he was a Senator.
Afterwards, rather than make it easier to access the full details of politicians’ and former politicians’ expenses claims and movements in Leinster House, they made it harder. All disclosure is resisted.
When the Dáil is sitting I see familiar faces in Leinster House, former ministers, retired TDs and special advisers.
Some are just visiting while others are probably bored in retirement. Mary Coughlan shouted in my direction on the plinth last Tuesday, asking humorously (I hope) about what lies I was telling my companions. I was enjoying the sun.
But many other former TDs and ministers are lobbying. I often see former Fianna Fáil minister Noel Dempsey in Leinster House. In 2011 he set up Noel Dempsey Consulting. He says in his corporate biography: ‘My 16 years at the highest levels of government, gives me a unique insight into all levels of government and public administration in Ireland.’
Dempsey works as chairman of the Temple Bar Company while receiving an annual State pension of €119,177.
There are many other former TDs and Senators, Government advisers and journalists working as lobbyists. The word lobby comes from the name of the main hall at Westminster, the lobby, where the public would petition their Members of Parliament. It is an old and wholly legitimate practice. Lobbying can be both ‘bad’ and ‘good’.
Bad is seen as the oil and the pharmaceutical industries, for example. But there are advovacy groups who do good work on the environment, education and health.
Lobbying is not the problem; it is the secrecy.
Leinster House is the engine room of the country, where issues are debated, laws are made and the country’s interests represented, fought over and protected.
Leinster House is not ‘owned’ by the civil service nor is it in ‘owned’ by TDs and senators.
Leinster House is owned by the people of Ireland and all those who enter it should be a matter of public record.