Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

One must balance the question of client or patient confidentiality in a health or financial matter against the need for the principles of public accountability to be established and maintained. That is the balance here, and that balance must be respected as well. There is a Data Protection Commissioner and many others who seek to protect information belonging to people, but the idea that one can only have open and transparent Government when everyone knows everyone's business is not my idea of what this is about.

It is about public accountability and people having access to records that are relevant to their own details, family, history or whatever it is they wish to get from the Department. They are entitled, in the event of matters not working out for them properly, to get the information and to be able to assess whether the proper standards were applied. I have no problem with any of that. We all are committed to that.

The idea, however, that every piece of information on anybody should be available to somebody else because he or she just has the curiosity to inquire about the person's business is not what freedom of information is about; that is an invasion of privacy. There are privacy and public accountability issues which must be considered in this context, but, in fairness, that balance has been reasonably well struck and I do not have an issue with it. However, the contention that the freedom of information legislation is inadequate because one cannot get access to everything whenever one wants it is not my idea of what freedom of information is about. It is about relevant information in the public interest where that is required, and for the private citizen who is dealing with the State through its agencies, boards or Departments so that he or she can have access to relevant information pertinent to him or her and how he or she was dealt with by the State. In both cases, I have no problem.

As I stated, there has been a much increased expansion to a range of bodies. It is the job of the Minister for Finance in terms of his responsibility for the public service to consider any further extensions to freedom of information legislation based on the requirements and the public interest. For example, there are issues concerning the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, such as security files. Should they be made available to everyone who wants them? I would not think so.

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