Former politicians who don't observe a "cooling-off" lobbying period could soon be fined up to €25,000.
The proposals would make it an offence for former politicians, civil servants or special advisers to break the 12-month waiting time.
It comes after former Fine Gael junior minister Michael D'Arcy resigned from the Seanad in 2020 to work for an investment industry lobby group.
While the group said Mr D’arcy would not engage in lobbying activities for 12 months, the appointment received significant criticism from opposition parties and even members of the Government.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was ‘not happy or comfortable' with the appointment.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath hopes the changes he's bringing to Cabinet today will avoid a repeat of that incident.
He observed: “I think there was a gap in the legislation. It was a contravention, but it wasn’t punishable - there was no penalty.
“If you’re going to have a contravention, there has to be a consequence for not complying with that aspect of the law.
“Where we now have a cooling-off period of 12 months… if people breach that, there will be a significant penalty.”
He said there is a balance to be achieved in terms of people’s rights to seek work.
However, he said it’s just “not appropriate” for former politicians to be very quickly lobbying their former colleagues or employer.
