Fórsa is now registered as a lobbying organisation and has submitted the union’s first set of returns to the Lobby Register covering the period from 1st January to 30th April 2018.  

 

Lobbying organisations are required to publish their returns no later than 21 days after the end of the relevant reporting period.

 

The Regulation of Lobbying Act was signed into law in 2015.

 

Fórsa submitted 11 returns for the most recent reporting period. The deadline for submissions for this period expired on Monday (21st May).

 

The latest lobbying returns submitted by Fórsa cover the following matters:

Failure to submit a return of lobbying activities carried out during the period by the deadline is a contravention of the Regulation of Lobbying Act.

 

Enforcement provisions under the act came into effect last year, giving the Standards in Public Office Commission the authority to investigate and prosecute contraventions of the Act and to levy fixed payment notices for late filing of lobbying returns.

Fórsa members who undertake lobbying activity are not required to make a return unless they are lobbying under instruction from their union, such as in the event of a ‘grassroots’ campaign. For example, the Cork branch campaign on youth work services included an instruction to members to contact their local constituency public representatives seeking support of the campaign.

 

All lobbying activity undertaken by Fórsa staff is reportable, apart from activity classified as ‘excepted communications’ under the legislation.

 

For more details about the legislation and the register, visit lobbying.ie.

 

See also: Fórsa trade union profile page on Lobbying.ie.