Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have given my view. I like to see accurate responses that contain as much information as possible. This is appropriate when Deputies ask questions. I have discussed this issue with the Secretary General and, in a spirit of openness, the Department of the Taoiseach publishes on its website a range of details on a quarterly basis. They include details of foreign travel expenses, purchase orders in excess of €20,000, minutes of the IFSC Clearing House Group, minutes of the Department's management advisory committee, the Secretary General's diary and a log of freedom of information requests. This is published normally and there has never been a question about it. In a voluntary sense, if one offers these items of information, it may well deal with the issue the Deputy raises.

The new legislation will require public bodies to prepare and publish publication schemes that are consistent with international best practice in this area to promote the proactive publication of information outside the freedom of information system. My Department will do this following enactment of the legislation. If one wants to ask a parliamentary question, one should receive the same response – whatever the question is – but I have seen pages of entirely different matters, not one consequent on the other. The charge is being reduced. The reduction of fees for internal review is from €75 to €30, while for an appeal, it is from €150 to €75. Applications in respect of personal requests remain free of charge, while the €15 application fee will remain in place for non-personal requests. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has said on many occasions that it is not unreasonable to expect a small contribution to be made towards the cost of information retrieval in respect of requests for non-personal information. I hope that as we proceed, other Departments will follow suit and put as much information as they can on themselves on their websites and make it available to everybody. There is always a culture of saying one received information from the Department through the freedom of information system that one could not get through a parliamentary question and that there is, therefore, considerable secrecy about matters. If information on these matters is published on the website for the general public to see, there is no great scéal in it, no secrecy. Therefore, it is in line with the issue raised by the Deputy. If Ministers or Secretaries General have no concerns about the way their Departments are run, that is fair enough.

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