Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform

Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed)

4:50 pm

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

I thank the Chairman and will be brief. I am merely drawing a parallel and that time-limited system works well. However, in the case of an application that reaches An Bord Pleanála, that body does not have such a time limit and it keeps extending matters ad nauseam. The same can happen in this case and I believe the adoption of legal time limits would lead to good public administration. When a system is left without such limits, matters can be left to run on for ages. The particular limit I included in this amendment was ten weeks and while some might suggest this is too long and I should have opted for a shorter period, at least it would provide absolute certainty. I acknowledge people probably would work to the ten-week clock when they saw such a limit in place but I believe it is better to have such a time limit. I would be satisfied, were the Minister to state he agreed with the principle and would agree to an eight-week time-limit. As for amendment No. 40, it is the same issue and I seek a time limit in respect of publishing these matters. The essence of these amendments is a time limit.

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