Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It will be a balance. I have held discussions with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, regarding these issues. The NAMA suite of companies - I will not list them all or their acronyms - operate in a very challenging commercial and economic environment. They handle deals that are commercially sensitive on a real-time basis. Important safeguards that ensure the well being of the State will require that such information not be disclosed in a completely open way.

Targeted legislative changes are necessary - these are what we have set out and negotiated - to extend the freedom of information regime to encompass these bodies. To the extent that timely information would not have an adverse impact on the public good, it should be in the public domain. This is the approach we are taking with these bodies.