Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 12, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:" "Minister's FOI Data Manager" means the person appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform within his or her Department responsible for collating and publishing all FOI related data;".

I suggest this amendment for a very practical reason. In dealing with the new Department, we have found ourselves in circumstances in which information and data have been scattered and not gathered in a coherent fashion, thereby making it not readily accessible to us or others. I certainly had that experience when seeking information on local authorities and pensions. Making a simple request for a full and comprehensive list of public bodies became an odyssey. It would be wise, therefore, to have an officer in the Department who would be responsible for the collation and publication of all the FOI data. This makes administrative sense. It would make the system more efficient and it would reassure people that their questions would not be passed from Billy to Jack and from one place to another.