The Lobbying Amendment Bill 2023

The Bill was passed by the Dáil in June 2023 and most the enforcement provisions of the Bill commenced on 1 January 2024. Those provisions relating to sections 18 and 22 will commence on 1 June 2024.

The principal provisions of The Lobbying (Amendment) Act 2023 are as follows;

• Under Section 5 (1) (c) the scope of the Act is expanded to include any person who ‘makes, or manages or directs the making of any relevant communications about the development or zoning of land’.
• A representative or issue-based organisation must have at least one employee in order to be in scope of the Act. The Amendment Bill extends this scope to include any representative or issue based organisation, without at least one employee, if at least one of the organisation’s members has more than 10 full-time employees. (Amending Sections 5(2) and 5(3) of the Act).
• A new exemption has been added under section 5.5 (p) to include communications by a political party to its members who are designated public officials and which are made exclusively as members of the political party concerned.
• Under Section 8 any registered person whose entry on the register has been marked under section 11(4) as ceased is prohibited from carrying on lobbying activities.
• Under Section 11 the address at which a person carries on business or carries on the person’s main activities, or the address at which the person normally resides, must be included in the details provided by the registrant.
• Under Section 18 a new contravention has been added. Section 22(1) is contravened if a person takes any action that has its intended purpose the avoidance or circumvention of the person’s obligations under the Act.
• Under Section 22 (d) provision is made that every public service body must inform relevant designated public officials of their obligations under section 22. Furthermore, the public service body must inform the Standards in Public Office Commission when a relevant designated public official is leaving his or her employment.
• For a relevant contravention under section 18 (f) (avoidance or circumvention of the person’s obligations under the Act) or under section 22(1) (Not seeking a waiver of the cooling off period) a minor or a major sanction may be imposed. A Minor sanction will be advice, reprimand or caution. A Major sanction will be a financial sanction not exceeding €25,000, a prohibition on the person from registering on the Register for no more than two years, and a prohibition on the person from making or having a return made for no more than two years.