Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason for the slight disruption while the Deputy was speaking was that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform was just saying to me that personal information is free under the Freedom of Information Act and that the charge per request is only a fraction of the actual cost of determining the information.

The Deputy said his party had put forward a proposition. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, is dealing with the matter. He has submitted the general scheme of a freedom of information Bill to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform for its views and recommendations. The heads of the Bill were cleared by the Government some time ago and the Minister expects to be in a position to publish the Bill by the end of the year-----

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