Results 221-240 of 4,717 for speaker:Martin Mansergh

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: I agree with Senator McDowell that it is desirable that the tax strategy group papers should continue to be published. The tax strategy group is not a Cabinet sub-committee, rather it is a committee that is summoned into existence by the Minister for Finance. Over the past four years, we have seen the papers, except in cases where the deliberative process is continuing. The budget usually...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: That is when they are working to the Cabinet.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: There is a slight qualification. Not everything is released. The Senator understands that.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: It might be helpful to illuminate the discussion by outlining how freedom of information legislation works in a Department. The deletion has probably been proposed because the current clause does not correspond to the reality of the operation of the Act. In practice, freedom of information requests are handled de facto by a person in each of the divisions. Clearly, it is difficult for a...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: In reply to Senator O'Toole, training is provided. In my experience, Departments take FOI requests seriously as they do not wish to be in breach of the law. Obviously, there is an information officer co-ordination point but inevitably decisions require a great deal of judgment as to how one applies the rules in the specific instance. I participated in decision making on FOI requests when...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: The word "contain" is a more precise formulation than "relate to". I can imagine, as a civil servant who has had to contribute to decision-making, having awful judgment problems about whether something relates to something else. It is vague and ambiguous. The word "contain" is much more precise. Precision in legislation, which makes it easy for people to apply, has merit.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: The Senator is not without some influence on Governments.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: In defence of the Taoiseach, the Opposition has entirely failed to demonstrate that there is, in terms of practical end effect, a difference between "relate to" and "contain". The superiority of the word "contain" is that it is legally precise. We should not, in this case, keep language in legislation which is ambiguous and ambivalent. Whether it is "relate to" or "contain", the officer...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: Only potentially.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: We need to remember that we are talking about personal information. I do not accept that the people making the decisions will necessarily decide in a restrictive manner just because the word "contain" is used. It gives a firm basis, but there has always been room for discretion and judgment when it comes to supplying information that might be helpful. I do not see that there is a problem, but...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: I must disagree with that. "Relate to" is also perfectly capable of being interpreted in an extremely restrictive and minimalist fashion.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: No, about the same. Question put. Tá

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: With respect, this is an entirely reasonable section. It prevents unnecessary work by civil servants if someone, for whatever reason, decides to withdraw a request. It would be wrong if someone was pressured into withdrawing applications and ended up with less information, but one cannot provide for every informal eventuality. We must not waste too much time on this part of the Bill. I would...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: I would not want another Minister to be led into temptation. In that respect, I am glad he is far away and unable to respond to the Senator's point. I hope we can get over this section as quickly as we can. We must ask ourselves what is the best use of the limited time the Seanad has to discuss this Bill. Is it best used to discuss questions of substance, or is it, to use the Senator's words,...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: To address one point made by Senator McDowell, we should operate on the assumption that public servants, according to their lights, will administer the vast majority of cases with integrity rather than on any other supposition. Senator McDowell gave the example of a budget submission containing commercially sensitive information. I find it hard to conceive of a budget submission looking for a...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters. - Company Closures. (11 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: I welcome the Minister of State. There was a deep sense of shock in Tipperary town last Thursday afternoon when the workforce, and then the population at large, were informed that in the principal factory in the town 150 out of 230 people would lose their jobs between the end of May and October. Pall Corporation was a replacement industry for Tambrands, which closed some years ago. This...

Seanad: Order of Business. (12 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: The new partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, has been published and circulated, although it is subject to ratification. Perhaps, as agreed earlier, we could have an early debate on this when the House reconvenes the week after next.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (12 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: I appreciate Senator Higgins has taken his objections to the provision from the commentary supplied by the NUJ. This is an entirely reasonable change. The wording refers to the work of the public body in question and there is no reference to units.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (12 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: The original drafting, which refers solely to disruption of "other work" as opposed to "the work" of a Department or public body, is a little illogical. If the case for rejecting a request is prima facie unreasonable, there is a strong chance a dissatisfied requester would make an appeal to the Information Commissioner. We should move away from the notion that civil servants will be prone to...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (12 Mar 2003)

Martin Mansergh: The explanatory memorandum refers to "the work of a particular unit or section".