Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I would like to ask the Minister about his Department's handling of a number of freedom of information requests made by me, which have been ongoing since last July or earlier. The requests relate to the handling of the events referred to in Question No. 92. The Department has informed me that of the 90 documents pertaining to my request, it has decided to refuse to release 64 of them, to release ten of them in part and to release just 13 of them in their entirety. It is incredible, given that the actions of the banks have cost this country so much money, that the Department is taking this approach. It has nothing to do with the Information Commissioner, as the Minister is the primary decision-maker in terms of departmental policy. The Information Commissioner gets involved at a much later phase of the process. In my case, the only remaining phase probably involves having recourse to the courts.

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