Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I am relieved to hear that.

The Labour Party has two Private Members' Bills on the Order Paper relating to freedom of information. One Bill proposes that the Freedom of Information Act should apply automatically to all public bodies unless there are compelling reasons for it not to, in other words, that the freedom of information process would apply automatically and the legislation would provide for exemptions, rather than the formula we have at present, whereby bodies must be added to the Freedom of Information Act.

The second Bill, in the name of Deputy Mary Upton, proposes that the number of years before State papers are transferred to the National Archives would be reduced from 30 to 15. Will the Taoiseach give favourable consideration to this idea?

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