Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to debate this important issue. I wish to focus on the Government amendment and draw attention to a major problem with the approach, and I will do so by way of an example. The point made by the Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service on the Freedom of Information Act was interesting but I take the opposing view. The Information Commissioner, in her report to that committee last December, recommended that the Freedom of Information Act be strengthened by the enactment of a new non-disclosure Bill. She did so because she found out by accident last October that the Freedom of Information Act had been amended by the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act. The effect of the amendment is that for all practical purposes, the Health and Safety Authority is no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The Information Commissioner argued that such a centralised approach would be transparent across the board, would help standardise the approach across Departments, would provide a single repository for reference purposes, would be reliable and comprehensive and would facilitate amendment. There are similarities between this and the Protection of Whistleblowers Bill. If a piecemeal approach is taken, it will take a significant amount of time to introduce this into every sector requiring a whistleblowers' charter. One piece of legislation would be preferable. Clearly, there is a value in ease of access to information. That is part of the reason there is amending legislation.

If such legislation is enacted, it would promote benefits across sectors rather than digging through various legislation to find the appropriate section. A piecemeal approach is the wrong way to go and that is why I support the proposed legislation.

See this speech in context