Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I apologise if the following matter was dealt with earlier. I had to attend the Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government for a meeting on an important Bill.

In recent months I came across a lead story in which stated that the information which followed was discovered by a news agency through freedom of information. As it happened, I was nearly sure I had read that on the website, which I did, but it gave the article gravitas as if the matter was being hidden and was discovered by freedom of information.

Turning the fees on its head, what would be the witnesses' views of imposing a large fee on FOI applications for information that is already freely available on websites? Many Departments provide a great deal of information. To be honest, I myself discovered it. I have asked parliamentary questions and found that if I had looked at the website, the information was there.