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

According to Emily O'Reilly, the full amount realised from all of the charging, whether of retrieval or up-front fees, in 2011 was €87,000. That is peanuts in terms of the public finances. I ask the Minister not to make fools of us by suggesting this is important for the finances of the State. Clearly, it is not. If it not about raising €87,000, it must be about something else. The Minister should be open and up-front on what that something else is. Deputy Sean Fleming was right when he said it was about managing demand. A sum of €15 is a good deal of money to some people, while €87,000 is not even small change for the Government. Applying a charge is a disincentive for ordinary people.

On a point of clarification - I do not care whether this is a U-turn or a climbdown; it does not make any difference - I gather that the outcry is that pressure is being experienced, but that is what this committee is for and if the Minister listens, that is excellent. That is what democracy is supposed to be about. Nobody should be ashamed to say, "I am responding to pressure in the media or from the public." That is precisely what we are all here for - to respond to that pressure.

I draw the Minister's attention to examples he gave yesterday. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly gave a hypothetical example, to which the Minister gave a clear answer. He provided examples - I have only had a chance to look at them now - of what he described as multifaceted requests which ran foul of his concerns and which, presumably, even with the new amendment he is proposing, involved multiple charges rather than a single charge. FOI 213 1882 is a request I randomly read, a request for all records within the Department within the timeframe 9 March 2011 to 14 May 2013 related to a list of items. It is clear from these eight items that they all relate to expenses incurred by the Taoiseach during the Minister's party's period in government. That is what they are all about.