Lobbying

The Irish Printing Federation has represented its members interests across a wide range of topics for over 100 years.  This has included lobbying efforts on specific topics as necessary.

Examples include representations made to the Revenue Commissioners tosimplify the VAT regulations and to broaden the interpretation of categories to which the lower VAT rates applied.
Representations were made to Government, political parties and an Garda Síochána in relation to breaches of legislation relating to electoral material not carrying the appropriate imprints.  Specific cases of VAT avoidance were highlighted and brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.

In 2002, with the establishment of the Print and Packaging Forum, the Council of IPF decided that many of the issues which required lobbying on behalf of the sector would be better achieved following the social partnership model rather than IPF working on its own.  As a consequence, the IPF has played a key role with our partners in the Print and Packaging Forum in lobbying on a broad range of issues for the print industry which are summarised below.

For more information on the Print and Packaging Forum see printpackforum.com 

The Irish Printing Federation remains committed to the ideal and approach of social partnership as a vehicle to deliver change within and on behalf of the sector.
However, the IPF also sees the need and value in representing the views of employers in the sector directly where such representation is required.

The results of the lobbying of the Print and Packaging Forum have resulted in changes in:

Print Industry Public Procurement: 

–    The Forum has succeeded in changing Government policy in this area significantly
–    The organisation of procurement has been fundamentally changed and will change even more
–    Attention has been focused on the peculiar decisions of the past
–    The options legally possible under EU procurement rules have been highlighted to the authorities here
–    The disparity between Irish procurement practice and the EU norms have been demonstrated
–    We are being successful in stopping the Achilles “pay for access” approach to public contract opportunities

Print Industry Retention of Work in Ireland: 

–    Considerable success has been achieved in retaining contracts in Ireland that would otherwise have gone overseas
–    High profile examples include the Ministry of Defence, and Lisbon 2 Referendum contracts, which were broken down into lots
–    The profile of the public procurement issue has made many public bodies pause and retain their contracts in Ireland

Print Industry VAT: 

–    The Forum has raised the profile of this issue considerably
–    New regulations have been issued for VAT Exempt Bodies which makes their responsibilities clear
–    We have seen the impact of this in the college sector where less contracts are going overseas
–    The Revenue Commissioners have engaged with us on specific instances and are more aware of the issue
–    The Comptroller and Auditor General is also more aware of this issue

Print Industry Profile: 

–    Prior to the work of the Forum the industry had a weak profile nationally and effectively no profile with politicians or Government
–    The industry has a significant profile now with Government, politicians and the media
–    This allows the industry’s issues to be aired and heard in a way unimaginable three years ago
–    The Forum is starting to receive the credit it deserves in the media in relation to public procurement reform

Internal Print Industry Developments: 

–    The Forum succeeded in having a new apprenticeship designed and approved with the full cooperation of all stakeholders
–    This process involved an open discussion around issues of demarcation and operational issues which has led to significantly improved arrangements for many companies
–    The Forum has facilitated a dialogue between employers and trades unions in the industry to address issues of common purpose working together.  This has built a level of cooperation and trust which was not present before.