Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion

10:05 am

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for attending. The witnesses are the experts here so I want to learn from them. I agree there should not be any fees or restrictions on access to information and no disincentives. We must open up the State to full scrutiny by journalists and others. The disadvantages faced by freelance and regional journalists were outlined. I am not defending the fees, which I think should be abolished completely, but the other side of the coin is that if the State is opened up to full and free access to all information, there will be a significant increase in the number of freedom of information requests, which will then place an administrative burden on the State. Is that the case? We will need more people to work on this.

Perhaps the other side of the coin of asking for full and free access is an acceptance or an acknowledgment by the media that are critical of the size of the public service and want it to be culled that if they want this information, more employees are needed to provide it.

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