Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether the Deputy was in this House or was away with his colleagues when his party in government bulldozed through the gutting of the Freedom of Information Act in 2004.

It was put through the House in one day with no submissions sought. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, will bring the heads of the Bill to reform the Freedom of Information Act before the Dáil hopefully by the end of the year. My Department received 115 requests between January and September, of which 68 were granted or partially granted and nine were rejected. No records existed in nine cases, ten requests were withdrawn and 19 requests are ongoing. The process is pursued at arm's length from the political system. The Minister will introduce changes to restore a sense of credibility to the Freedom of Information Act, which was withdrawn by a previous Government.

Deputy Martin once again referred to the 17 files associated with the decision to introduce a blanket guarantee for banks. Those 17 files have been published. The vast majority of them are meaningless, as the Deputy is aware. The problem is that the Department of the Taoiseach has no evidence on the meetings that took place with the banks, what was said in them or who made what point. Irrespective of whether the files comprise copies of faxes, e-mails or acknowledgements, they are not relevant to the fundamental questions - perhaps the Deputy knows the answers - as to who was in the room, who met with the banks and at what level, what the discussions were about and what issues were decided on in order to determine the background to the most momentous and fundamental economic decision ever made in this country.

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