Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a quick observation. The process can be quite cumbersome and many replies come back late. The people submitting the request are contacted and asked whether they mind if the reply is late, but they do not really have any choice in the matter because if they force the issue, the response could be incomplete. Some of the redactions are pretty inexplicable. The freedom of information officer seems to have quite an amount of discretion on this issue and we cannot judge as recipients whether it is fair and reasonable and that the number of redactions is justified. With regard to freedom of information requests by Members of the Oireachtas, if the responses we receive to parliamentary questions were more detailed, many freedom of information requests from Members would not be necessary. Obviously, if we want the backup documentation, we must go through the freedom of information process because typically they do not come with replies to parliamentary questions.

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