Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a brief observation. We tabled amendments on Committee Stage asking that the freedom of information legislation apply to the national lottery regulator. The Minister said that was not necessary because the new legislation he will introduce will include all these bodies. It is clear from what the Minister has said now, however, that there will be some exemptions from freedom of information. He said a moment ago that there might be some exceptions with regard to some of the commercially sensitive information as part of the licence that might not be published due to it being deemed commercially sensitive. If the Minister is to apply FOI to this measure, the licence and the conditions of the licence should be available under FOI. The Minister said he is going by the legal and commercial advice from his Department that perhaps the information could be used against the operator in bids in other countries. He is saying, therefore, that the licence to be issued by the regulator or the Minister will not be fully subject to FOI. The last few minutes has seen a rowing back on full application of freedom of information to the national lottery licence and the legislation has not even been passed by the House.

I spoke about the Minister's document on the sunset clause months ago. The Minister has talked about the commitment on the children's hospital but he will not include it in the legislation. He also talks about the commitment regarding the sunset clause, but he will not put it in the legislation. We have been given a commitment that this will be covered by freedom of information, but now he tells us there will be exemptions from disclosure of some information on the lottery licence because it might be commercially sensitive. The Minister is rowing back on the commitment to full freedom of information relating to the national lottery regulator. The longer this goes on, the murkier it gets. I thought this was a simple legislative measure but I am disappointed to hear the Minister say that some of this information might not be fully disclosable.

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