Standards in Public Office Commission publishes its 2022 Annual Report under the Regulation of Lobbying Act

Friday 30th June 2023:  Today the Standards in Public Office Commission published its 2022 Regulation of Lobbying Annual Report under the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015. The report covers the Commission’s activities in administering the Act for the 2022 reporting year, including enforcement activities undertaken during the year. 

The total number of registrants on the register increased to 2,430 an almost a 6% increase on 2021. At the time of completing this report, more than 11,600 returns of lobbying activities had been submitted in respect of the three reporting periods in 2022. In 2022, the Commission carried over two investigations into possible unreported lobbying from 2021 into 2022 and two further investigations were launched during the year. Separately, the Commission closed two cases during 2022 on the basis that there was no evidence that unreported lobbying has occurred.

The Commission also reported that it received no applications to waive or reduce the Act's post-employment provisions in 2022. Statistics on applications received since the Act’s commencement are included in the report.

For more information and to read the Commission's full report on the Regulation of Lobbying in 2022, please visit the website www.lobbying.ie. 

For further information please contact: 

Press Office:media@sipo.ie  
Standards in Public Office Commission 
6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 W773 
(01) 639 5722 

Email:             info@lobbying.ie 
Website:         www.lobbying.ie 
Twitter:           @LobbyingIE 

Background:

On 1 September 2015, the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 commenced, and with it, the requirement for those who lobby designated public officials to register and report on their lobbying activities every four months. The enforcement provisions of the Act commenced subsequently, on 1 January 2017. Information submitted to the Register is available for public inspection at www.lobbying.ie. The website, which includes the online register, also has a suite of information tools designed to help lobbyists, designated public officials and the public to fully understand the Act and its obligations. 

The Standards in Public Office Commission was created in 2001, and oversees legislation governing ethics in public office, electoral finance, expenditure of State funding, and the regulation of lobbying.