Results 48,041-48,060 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: It can be thought of as a few lines of-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: SQL is-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: It is a query language, a type of code used to extract information from large data sets. My concern is that this amendment states that if pulling information from a large data set requires a few new lines of code, the small programme that finds the information, that code will not be required to be written.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, please. I am sure that is not the intention, but the amendment states, "being steps that involve the use of any facility for electronic search or extraction that existed on the date of the request". Therefore, if 20 lines of new code are required to obtain the information, the organisation may state it is a new tool, that it does not have to create it and the applicant cannot have the data.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: If an entirely new programme is required that calls for months of coding work, that is fine. If it requires a reasonable amount of code, a few lines of new code, that should not be grounds to refuse an FOI request.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, great. For one person, coming up with ten new lines of code might be highly unreasonable, while for someone else, it might be ten minutes work. A new search algorithm being required to extract information falls within an FOI request. No FOI request will be refused on these grounds.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Yes, it is.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: I want to go through a few of the subsections with the Minister, but I have not tabled amendments to delete them. I just want to discuss them. As I looked at them, I thought there was good stuff in them if I was an officer or an official who just did not want to give out any information. We have talked about section 15(1)(c) which states that a request may be refused if: In the opinion of...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Are they publicly available?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Great. The request can be refused on the grounds that publication of the record is required by law and is intended to be effected not later than 12 weeks after the receipt of the request. Why is that included? Why not just release it under the FOI legislation anyway?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Will the Minister give an example?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Publication record required by law.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: I am not sure that this one has not caused problems. Certainly, some of the people to whom I have spoken would talk about delaying tactics being used in order that if something is live and a story has momentum, if the information can be sufficiently delayed, although not ultimately refused, it becomes less useful. Is this just a reiteration of what in contained in the 1997 legislation?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Section 15(1)(f) states "the FOI body intends to publish the record and such publication is intended to be effected not later than 6 weeks after the receipt of the request by the head".
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: Okay.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: That seems reasonable. My last point relates to section 15(1)(i)(ii) which states the request will be refused if "it appears to the head concerned that requester is acting in concert with a previous requester". That is subjective, is it not?
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: There are other reasons for a refusal which include the fact that the information is already in the public domain or has already been provided. I am not hugely concerned. It is just that in the spirit of creating as transparent a process as possible, we should-----
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: It states it applies "where it appears to the head concerned...". This one does not work for me.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: That seems reasonable.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Chairman.