Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

The Deputy is no doubt correct. I am sure he will bring about some improvement by asking the right questions and querying the report on an annual basis.

I regret that Deputy Burton has not been able to stay for my reply. She raised some issues with regard to FOI requests. That is not policy and my Department responds to FOI requests immediately. I regret that some of the responses and news items she has made out of them recently and the use of dated information can give a very skewed view of a particular situation. All FOI requests to the Department of Finance are responded to immediately.

See this speech in context