Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

To put the figure in context, the Minister used an example on the question of fees and payments and said somebody could be earning €100,000. If the payment is €100,000 to a PR company and there is a penalty of €25,000, that puts it into perspective. We have seen in the past that although people were not supposed to be engaging in lobbying, the cooling-off period was completely ignored.

Let us not do things by half measure; let us do this properly. It is not particularly onerous for the Department to carry out a review of a small number of incidents over a three-year period. Whatever resources are required to do that are certainly worth it if it is about cleaning up the act of lobbying.

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