Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I support Deputy Boyle's amendment. Will the Minister of State say what will be the position of the new body under the Freedom of Information Act 1997? It is critical that the reports and research material of these bodies are freely accessible.

The Bill refers to summary reports and the amendment in the name of the Taoiseach mentions reporting to a relevant Oireachtas committee. The Freedom of Information Act 1997 is mentioned and I hope these bodies will come under its ambit because that represents the only way to gain access to such material.

What are the chances of Opposition Deputies accessing this information if, for example, under the revisions in the Freedom of Information Act 1997, reports of such bodies are deemed to be deliberations on ongoing Government policy? As Deputy Bruton said, the work of the NESC is primarily to produce research papers and documentation. We can get reports on how many times the bodies met etc. — somebody might be interested in that though I am not — but the House will want to access the documentation and the information on which the reports to be made by this super body are compiled. There has been a huge row-back on the part of Government on how much information we can access under freedom of information, on top of the fact that it has imposed severe costs for that access. If social partnership is not fully subject to freedom of information it would be a sorry comment on the notion that this Government was open to giving information to the public about bodies its tax is paying for.

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