Ms Maria Graham:

The genesis for the provision in the general scheme follows closely on what was done in the most recent body established, which was Home Building Finance Ireland. The concept is that the information will be excluded by nature of the commercial provisions anyway and there is a considerable element of administration and consultation with people. It was for operational reasons.

As I indicated my opening statement, the Minister is open to examining the issues that might be raised by the committee with regard to freedom of information and lobbying to see whether we can strike a balance to increase the accountability people want without being unnecessarily burdensome to the LDA or infringing on its commercial freedom. If measures come forward that can achieve this balance, we are perfectly willing to take them. We were following the most recent legislative vehicle in the housing domain, which was with regard to lending to developers and protecting that commercial role. We will consider whatever comes from the committee in this regard.