Mr. Séamus Dooley:

One of the problems about FOI requests is that, by definition, once one makes a decision to file an FOI request one is resigning oneself to the long haul and, therefore, frequently it is not suitable for broadcasting. The reality is that it does take a long time. Having listened to Deputy Mathews, one of the consequences of waiving charges and greater flexibility, is that the onus would be on media organisations to devote more time to editorial resources. I would say that, would I not? The fact is, however, that if one has more information one also needs journalists to analyse it. Publishing it because one has it is not quality journalism. The users we have here are people who have got information which they have analysed and presented in context. That takes a great deal of time. To be clear, freedom of information is not some sort of journalistic fetish. It is about information being put in the public domain so that citizens can better understand the decisions which influence the world in which they live.