Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Institutions that are specifically excluded from the Act or are not comprehensively covered include the National Treasury Management Agency, the National Pensions Reserve Fund and the Central Bank.

With regard to the issue of cost, I have put in a number of requests since the establishment of the bank guarantee about interactions between the Department of Finance and Anglo Irish Bank, and have been obliged to go through appeals and reviews. Does the Taoiseach think that Deputies who are members of committees and so on should be obliged to spend considerable amounts of money making requests under the Freedom of Information Act? So little information is supplied to this House that we have no alternative. This is quite important information that should be in the public domain.

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