Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

As the Taoiseach stated, the Law Reform Commission comes within his Department's remit. There is a relationship also with the Garda Síochána. There is reason to ask the question. I support including the Garda Síochána within the remit of the Freedom of Information Act. On the last occasion this issue arose the Taoiseach also stated he was considering extending the Act to the Law Reform Commission. No decision has yet been made. Will he give an indication of the timeframe within which he will make a decision? It seems pointless for us to keep asking the same question and for him to keep giving the same answer. We are going around in circles and wasting valuable time in the process. Will he give an answer as to when we will know the answer to the question on the Law Reform Commission?

Since we last asked this question, the Department of Finance issued a directive on the implementation of freedom of information requests to do with fees and the number of topics which can be covered by one fee, which it is hoped will make the position easier. Will the Taoiseach elaborate on whether his Department will implement this directive? Has it been implemented? Will he make recommendations to the Department of Finance as to what improvements could be made to ensure greater transparency, given the complaints from the Information Commissioner that following the introduction of fees, there was a considerable fall-off in the numbers of requests made. The number of journalists' requests fell from 3,000 in 2001 to 1,000 in 2005.

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