Lobbying Reform Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17 ============================================================ Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare The information available to me is, as I mentioned in the opening contribution, that the Minister, Deputy Burke, spoke at an event hosted by Hanover Communications, where he outlined the overview of the omnibus proposal. I understand Enterprise Mobility was there. I have no information in relation to ExxonMobil but I would be happy that the Department will come back to the Senator directly to answer that specific question. I wish to make a broader point on lobbying. Of course it can be misconstrued, but I think it is incumbent on all of us, no matter what role we hold in public office, to listen to all sides. I have had the pleasure of being a public representative for 24 or 25 years now and I am just recently in this role. Throughout that time, I have met people of all creeds, colours and diversity in society - people from NGOs and large corporations - who have their own agenda. Some of it is profit-driven and some of it is an appreciation for human rights and the environment. I would like to think that, in a democratic environment, people can put their point forward. It is for all of us in public office to use our best judgment to establish what is right and wrong in relation to a particular directive. What this is about, to me, is a simplification process. It is about reducing the burden on companies where the regulation is overly burdensome and sometimes unnecessary. We all talk about. Farmers and small businesses talk about it. It is putting a burden on them to the extent that they are not able to get on with their business in a respectful way, continue to employ people and provide the ability for communities to have that employment. I take the Senator's point about big companies. It is incumbent on all of us----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-17