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

I know, but we are here changing the legislation. We are here to make the changes and not to copperfasten what was done in 1997. There have been many changes in this legislation. Before we come to decide on this amendment perhaps the Minister can take advice as to whether that subsection could be deleted. I do not know if he can do that. He cannot walk cleanly from this House today and say he has abolished fees for personal information. He is actually copperfastening fees for search and retrieval of personal information, which should not have been there to start with because the application was always free. So we are abolishing the application fee for non-personal information but we are copperfastening a fee for personal information search and retrieval if there are a significant number of records. I accept there is a method there for the deciding officer to assess the means of the requestor, which is arbitrary and unfair, and should not be there. Introducing a means test for this is not the way to go about it.

I ask the Minister to drop that subsection, which jars with what we are doing here. The section runs to two and a half pages compared with the previous section. On the previous day we discussed a measure covering the case where different sections in a Department had to deal with a request. Where was that? Has it been dropped or is it elsewhere in the Bill? I do not see it here - I presume it is not here. I am afraid in ten minutes time I might find it in there.

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