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

It is not there now.

On Committee Stage I highlighted the case of a person who wanted to get their full personal file from the Department of Social Protection relating to a disability invalidity payment. The person was told their request had to go to two different sections - to the means-testing section and to the medical section in the Department - and that was construed internally as two different requests. I did not think it should be, but that is how some people do it. It is all the more reason for having an exact code of practice. We are back to that again and we are happy to bring that in here.

Those are some general observations. I am pleased with the search and retrieval fees. We could argue about the number of hours here or there, but I agree with the gist of the Minister's approach. When the Minister comes back with the draft statutory instrument, I presume some of that could even be teased out at that stage. It is good that the Minister has specified in subsection (1) that the only charge will relate to the cost of the search for, and retrieval and copying of the record concerned. However, subsection (4) is of concern.

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