Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I have said, my intention is that 21 April 2008 will be the date that will apply to the vast majority of bodies under the Act. We will all recall that 2008 was before any of the egregious things that happened during the banking and financial crisis. All of those things flowed after that date. All of that area will be captured by this date. There has to be a balance. As the Deputy can imagine, when I was making the case for the date to be 2008, there was significant push-back from many people who did not want to go that far. I was reminded that this would impose a substantial additional burden on people. I was told that by definition, documentation was not in a form that was appropriate to freedom of information. It was suggested that it was onerous enough on them to have to go back all those years. I think this is a reasonable step in that context. Of course the Minister has the power to extend the retrospective date. That is done on a case-by-case basis. The imposition of a date other than 21 April 2008 will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For the generality of organisations that will be encompassed by freedom of information, it is reasonable to have a clear start date. It is signalled in the legislation. They have been preparing for it. I do not want to impose a burden on them over and above that.

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