Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 28, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:“(3) Subject to section 16, where a request is granted under subsection (1) the head shall ensure that access to the record is provided as soon as may be possible but no later than 10 weeks from the date the request was made.”.

Amendment No. 40 also will be discussed at this point. The purpose, simply and straightforwardly, is to put in place a time limit. A request can go into the FOI system, in which, from recollection, there is a requirement to acknowledge it within 28 days or four weeks. However, it sometimes goes into a never-ending loop thereafter. In many cases, there is no set time limit as to when the information will come out. As a public representative, the reason I have proposed a time limit is that public authorities do not like legal timeframes. The obvious one, with which all members are familiar, is the timeframe by which local authorities must decide on planning applications. I am quite sure that if that had not been provided for in the legislation, some applications will run until we were all dead and buried. The existing system, in which there is an initial two-month period, a period for further information, a period for reply and then a period of four weeks by which time a decision must be made, really improves the system no end. It is probably the bane of planners' lives because they might realise in some weeks that they are obliged-----