Register of Lobbying

The Standards Commission is responsible for establishing and maintaining the Register of Lobbying (the Register). The Register is available online to members of the public at www.lobbying.ie and is free of charge.

The Register contains:

• The registration details provided to the Standards Commission by each registered person on their Application to Register and
• The information contained in the returns of lobbying activities made by each registered person.

Requirement to register

You are prohibited from carrying on lobbying activities unless you are registered on the Register. This prohibition does not apply to the first relevant period during which you carry out lobbying activities. The Act provides that you can register after you have commenced lobbying.  Under the Act a person undertaking lobbying activities is required to register and submit a return of lobbying activity within 21 days of the end of the first “relevant period” in which they begin lobbying. The relevant period is the four months ending on the last day of April, August and December each year.  For example, if someone lobbies for the first time during the month of October, that activity has taken place within the relevant period of 1 September – 31 December. The person would be required to register and submit their first returns by 21 January, 21 days after the end of the relevant period.  There is no requirement, therefore, to register until after a person has actually commenced lobbying.

However, once you are obliged to be registered it is a relevant contravention of the Act and an offence to carry on lobbying activities without being registered.

The requirement to register applies equally to companies, sole traders, partnerships, representative bodies, advocacy bodies and individuals who are within scope of the Act. The legal structure is not relevant.  Individual citizens will most likely only be required to register if they are carrying on lobbying activities in a private capacity in relation to the development or zoning of land which is not their principal private residence.

Where an employee of a company is directed by the company to carry on lobbying activities on behalf of a company, it is the company and not the employee that is required to register and submit a return of the lobbying activities.

There is no fee involved in registering.

A registered person whose entry on the register has been marked as ceased and who subsequently wishes to recommence lobbying activities may notify the Commission that they wish to reactivate their registration. The Commission will then remove the note stating that they have ceased lobbying from the registration.