Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

It is nice to see peace and harmony blossoming between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Having listened to Deputy Sean Fleming and aside from freedom of information concerns, I expect each Department to have orderly and coherent filing systems, full stop. The Deputy differentiated between Departments, but that is probably another day's discussion.

I welcome this debate on the proposed amendment to the Freedom of Information Act. The history of freedom of information has been rocky. The irony will not be lost on anyone in the Chamber that it was Deputy Sean Fleming's party that butchered the spirit of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill in 2003.

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