Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to take the prescriptive 12-monthly reporting in the way it is laid out in the amendment. I would look for a way to ensure that, for example, the information the Deputy requested from the former Garda Commissioner would be in the public domain in any event.

We should know how many disclosures or usages of the legislation happened in each public body. I will see if I can find a mechanism for that to be part of the normal reporting measures.

I do not know whether Deputy McDonald had the chance to look into any of last year's Open Government Partnership, OGP, Conference. I am wedded to the notion of moving to a regime of open data. We should be in a position where access to information is as open as possible. This would obviate the need for freedom of information requests, as all of these data sets would be available. There is a technological challenge and, in many instances, an institutional resistance to this, but we must address those.

It is in the context of the reporting of legal obligations as a matter of course that I will determine whether I can address the issue. I am sorry to be long-winded about it, but that is how I would like to do it. It would be an amendment to Part 5 of the Bill, as published.