Results 19,381-19,400 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: That is an issue on which I will have to reflect further. The notion was that all public bodies would be captured. That was the original nexus of the Act. I want to extend that to capture other bodies that receive State funding. Whether bodies who have a statutory function-----
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: -----but do not receive any State funding can be captured is more problematic.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: We do: the ISPCA.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Not very much. That is a fair representation of the position. It is my intention, as soon as the Bill is enacted which I hope will happen very shortly, to have the widest possible trawl of any body which receives State funding, conducts public business and should properly be amenable to FOI legislation. This is something which will be formally reviewed by the Oireachtas from now on. If...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: He did not.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: He did not say that.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: It must be.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: The definition of "record" in section 2 is very broad and does encompass paper-based and all electronic correspondence, including e-mails. The additional text proposed by Senator Thomas Byrne would not be workable for the very reasons set out by Senator David Norris. It would extend coverage beyond official records to the personal records and personal accounts of individuals. I do not...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: The official business of the State takes place on official networks and so on and anything germane to it should be found on them. In terms of confidential discussions, as instanced by Senator David Norris, there is hardly a Senator in the House who has not had such discussions with me on some matter-----
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: -----and not sought to give advice on something, sometimes against his or her party's view. Sometimes that is appropriate. The idea is to have an official document on the process of decision-making in order that we know who had an input and so on. The notion that one's personal records would be-----
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I am advised that would be the effect, if not the intent, of the amendment. I assure the Senator that any official information sent electronically to the Department from someone's personal account or by the Department to someone else's account is a record for the purposes of the Act. All information received or stored on any Department's ICT system is amenable to FOI legislation.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: On the notion that one could solve the problem to which the Deputy referred by making all personal communications amenable to FOI legislation, that is not a road I would travel. This issue was put to the information commissioner as far back as 2003. There was a question about whether people would not keep records or keep them in a different way because of FOI legislation. The information...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I am saying that is why he said he was doing it. On the specific question, I do not know if the Senator has had a chance to read the draft code I published, Chapter 5 of which deals with records management for each public body, which should have guidelines and a policy in place for the use of personal mobile phones and e-mail addresses for work purposes in so far as FOI is concerned. The...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Yes.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Maybe if I respond-----
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: We are discussing amendments Nos. 5, 11, 18 and 35.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: I fully appreciate Senator Quinn’s sentiments that where a non-FOI body, whether public or private, carries out a service on behalf of an FOI body, the records relating to the service should be subject to FOI. On receipt of the Senator’s amendment I requested confirmation from the Office of the Attorney General that "person" as referred to in the definition of service provider...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: While we all want simplicity and plainness in the law, we are obliged to have consistency in the use of terms throughout the law. That is why we have the Interpretation Act, which applies to all legislation. Section 16(c) of the Interpretation Act 2005 determines that "A "Person" shall be read as importing a body corporate, whether a corporation aggregate or a corporation sole, and an...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: Marital status, trade union membership, sexual orientation - that should all be "FOIable".
- Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)
Brendan Howlin: But if it is, it should be accessible. The Senator does not want it-----