Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform
Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion
11:15 am
Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
Could Mr. Sheridan tell me about the exemptions in the legislation? In most or maybe all Departments there are items of legislation in which exemptions are listed stating that certain information cannot be released. Although, for example, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is subject to the FOI Act, there might be items on which one wants information but an exemption prevents disclosure of specific information. That has not featured sufficiently in our debate. The Information Commissioner and the committee are obliged by law to review those every five years. I think we did it once. I was involved in it on one occasion. These exemptions have flown under the radar.