Results 5,761-5,780 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The year 2008 would represent an unhappy coincidence.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 4: In page 12, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:" "Minister's FOI Data Manager" means the person appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform within his or her Department responsible for collating and publishing all FOI related data;".I suggest this amendment for a very practical reason. In dealing with the new Department, we have found...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: They follow on from Amendment No. 4. Amendment No. 38 proposes operational procedures whereby, on a six-monthly basis, a head would submit to the Minister's FOI data manager, whose role I described earlier, all decisions and determinations in a format to be agreed by the Minister prior to the enactment of the Act. In other words, it simply means that one would receive, in a timely and...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Having made my case, I now propose to press the amendment.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I come to these exempted agencies from a different position from Deputy Fleming. Amendment No. 85 proposes a simple deletion of the exempted agencies set out in Part 2. The list is lengthy: An Post, Bantry Bay Harbour, Bord Gáis Éireann, Bord na Móna, Bus Éireann and Irish Water. There are matters that would be commercially sensitive attached to the commercial mandate...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I accept the Minister's argument in respect of the commercial sensitivity for semi-state companies. It would be unreasonable to place FOI strictures and requirements on bodies that compete in many instances with private operators that are not subject to a similar regime.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Absolutely, and I do not have an issue with that at all. My concern is that the legislation goes much further than recognising this reality and gives a blanket exemption in respect of freedom of information requests to these bodies. While it is true that they compete in commercial markets, I disagree with Deputy Fleming. There is a qualitative difference because while they are supposed to...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Was that amendment ruled out of order also?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: This is the amendment with which we have a problem.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am pleased the amendment is being withdrawn. I share the view that it does not contemplate the intention as set out earlier by the Minister. I have no doubt that the Parliamentary Counsel will find suitable language to clarify the matter. The Minister will not be surprised to hear me repeat that I am opposed to the imposition of any charge for freedom of information requests. He has...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 38: In page 29, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:"(7) Every six months, a head shall, submit to the Minister's FOI Data Manager all FOI decisions and determinations in a format to be agreed by the Minister prior to enactment of the Act. Failure by a head to submit information, in the absence of a business case for the same, will incur a €5,000 fine.".

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 39: In page 29, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following: "(4) Every six months, a head shall, submit to the Minister’s FOI Data Manager all extensions of time for consideration of FOI requests in a format to be agreed by the Minister prior to enactment of the Act. Failure by a head to submit information, in the absence of a business case for the same,...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 41: In page 30, line 7, after "concerned," to insert the following:"and in such an instance the head will consider in consultation with the Minister publishing the requested information no later than six months after the request has been refused,".This relates to refusal on administrative grounds to grant FOI requests, at section 15(1)(c) , where a refusal could be...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will clarify what I am suggesting here. I recognise the right of appeal. I suppose there are a number of grounds upon which a request might be refused. For instance, we discussed at some length the issue of commercial sensitivity at yesterday's meeting. The grounds for this refusal is an excessive administrative burden. I am suggesting in that instance that there would be something...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I accept all that in respect of the appeals procedure. I note the points of Deputy Creed about the insertion of the Minister into the mix. I will withdraw my amendment on this and introduce a different formula on Report Stage, albeit with the same concept at play.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 42: In page 30, to delete lines 13 to 16.This amendment proposes a deletion. It concerns an FOI refusal on the basis that, in the opinion of the head, it is frivolous, vexatious or forms part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests from the same requester or different requesters who, in the opinion of the head, appear to have made their requests acting in...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: The provision in the legislation allows for refusal on the basis of the opinion of the information officer that the request is either frivolous, vexatious or both, or that it forms part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests. If one wanted to be literal in one's interpretation of that, it may not be the frivolity or vexatiousness of that particular request, but that it forms part...

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: Please do not open up that conversation again or we will be here for months. I support this amendment. It is much more tightly drafted than what went before and it answers my concern and the reason for my amendment No. 46, which I will withdraw at the appropriate time.

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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will be as brief as I can. I am speaking to the Minister's amendment, which I accept he is withdrawing. I welcome that he is withdrawing this piece but that is as far as my welcome can go. The Minister has referred to the issue of the fees as though it were a distraction or some bogus attempt to undermine or attack what is otherwise very good legislation. Given that the Minister 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)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have said my piece. I have listened to the Minister but I do not accept his view. I do not believe it. I do not believe he actually believes his own position.