Ms Dearbhail McDonald:

The original Act, and the filleted version that replaced it in 2003, addressed the issue of nuisance or vexatious claims. It is a red herring to suggest the reason why there are such exorbitant fees is to deter those claims. The right to freedom of information cannot be killed by using the cloak of its occasional abuse; the Government should deal with that. The original Act and the 2003 amended Act address that and there are ways to do it without raising the red herring of fees. There will always be nuisance and vexatious claims - this happens in all strata of society, in the courts and elsewhere. This is about proportionality, however, and the right to information cannot be killed off by raising the flag of nuisance fees. It is something that must be dealt with and the Act and its amended version did so. It can be addressed and should not be used as a proportionate justification for the fee structures.