Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach's reply to Deputy Kenny about the Information Commissioner's remark that she had been taken by surprise by the exclusion of Health and Safety Authority investigations from the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, is unclear to me. Is the Taoiseach saying that is not the case? This is an important question and I am posing it in the context of, for example, the suggestion by my colleague, Deputy Howlin, that the Health and Safety Authority might take over the role of invigilating standards in industry generally, which is currently done in a more amorphous way by labour inspectors. In that way, they might work to a single authority, rather than creating a new authority. In those circumstances, the exclusion of health and safety investigations from the terms of the freedom of information legislation would not make any sense. The Taoiseach should take this opportunity to clarify the matter. Is he saying the Information Commissioner is wrong and that these matters are not excluded, or is he querying some nuance of that, which I do not understand?

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