Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The question related in part to the response given by a Department of Finance official who stated that freedom of information requests are costly to process. I can understand that because if the Freedom of Information Act has a structural impediment whereby information that might be relevant is not given out freely, it means that further information is requested and therefore officials must spend further time compiling it. In respect of what was stated by the Department of Finance, which is the Department with responsibility for the Freedom of Information Act, what is the Taoiseach's view on publishing information outside the Act? This would lessen the requirement for requests within the Act which are costly to process. Does the Taoiseach have a general view that it would be in everybody's interest for relevant information to be published outside the Freedom of Information Act readily without having to resort to it in the first place?

I am quite sure that as a Minister who served in many Departments over the years, the Taoiseach discussed with the Secretaries General of those Departments the fact that Deputies who table parliamentary questions should be given as much information as possible. The replies to many of the questions, which are vetted on behalf of Ministers by Secretaries General, are meaningless. This means that Deputies or other interested persons must then resort to freedom of information requests, which mean further time and cost and more red tape. If the Taoiseach were to tell his Cabinet colleagues to instruct the Secretaries General to be as flúirseach as possible with the information and make it as relevant as possible in the first instance, it might lessen the number of freedom of information requests.

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