Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Everything is under consideration all the time. There was no commitment in the programme for Government in 1992 to introduce a freedom of information Act because Fianna Fáil refused to do it. The Government has had five years of living with the Act and the first chance it got after the general election it walked away because Fianna Fáil did not want it. That is what the Bill is about. In spite of the line the Government is feeding to journalists and anybody who will listen, the Bill will be reversed when there is a change of Government. Whatever it is trying to conceal will become a matter of public record. That is the reason it is so wrong. If the Freedom of Information Act needed to be revised, this could have been achieved by consensus and agreement, with a proper process of consultation based on a spirit of openness, accountability and transparency, the goddess before whom the Minister does not worship, or so he tells us from time to time.