Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I second the amendment. Amendment No. 25 relates to section 20 of the principal Act. As Senator McDowell said, it deals with a specific point that has been made by the Information Commissioner and was referred to in the deliberations of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service.

I thank the Minister for his clear response to my earlier question and for having injected an even greater sense of realism in this debate. We are wasting our time and the points we are making are being made to the air. The Minister has said he will not accept any substantive amendments to the Bill. I thank him for the honesty and openness of his approach. Having clarified this, we now know to be untrue the suggestion that the Government was reconsidering its view on this legislation in light of the response of the public and the Opposition. There is clearly no intention of rolling back this amending Bill.

The Information Commissioner has pointed out that amending section 20 of the principal Act will lead to circumstances where a Secretary General from one Department will be able to bind the decision of a Secretary General in another Department. This creates an extraordinary situation. This amendment seeks to have a situation where the Secretary General's decisions should apply only to his or her Department and cannot bind the hands of another. Despite his earlier remarks, I ask the Minister to view this amendment as reasonable and sensible, and one which does not undermine his stated intention in relation to the principle of the legislation, but rather clarifies a particular point within it.