Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The information, opinions or reflections given by civil servants across a range of issues are not released. That Civil Service protocol is the reason the information would not be circulated. However, it is regularly released under freedom of information legislation. People have stopped submitting FOI requests because they have seen that it amounts to no more than I described. They have put down questions asking for information covering 40 or 50 days and found it is not of any great relevance.

It is helpful for a small number of civil servants to be able to get information across to Departments on the day, particularly if the line Departments are involved daily in responding quickly to issues being raised in the public domain and providing data and information promptly to try to deal with these issues. Yesterday, when a problem arose in the Dublin Port tunnel, people quickly demanded that Departments and agencies explain the position in the media. That puts pressure on Departments and agencies to get answers and give explanations, but this happens almost on an hourly basis. That is all this data is providing.

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