Results 12,201-12,220 of 16,492 for speaker:Ciarán Lynch

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: It is embarrassing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: I want to deal with two specific heads of the Bill to bring matters to a conclusion. Heads 34 and 37, which are related, deal with matters covering the investigation powers of the commissioner. What types of instances prompt or motivate an investigation under the powers of the commissioner?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Is the recent issue regarding possible information pertaining to how the penalty points system was administrated in recent years one Ms O'Reilly would observe and consider to be a matter for her office? Or would a request have to be received by her office inquiring how many penalty points were issued by the Garda Síochána in 2010 and how many of those were quashed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: In terms of head 26, in 2007 Ms O'Reilly identified that there was an anomaly whereby confidential information sent in a letter to a public body from a third party can qualify for exemption if it meets the criteria in head 26 while the same information received via telephone call or noted by a member of staff of a public body cannot attract such protection, because of the difficulties in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: When a ruling Ms O'Reilly has made on an appeal is implemented in a particular instance, is it then implemented across other Departments? Are those other Departments informed of particular rulings that are made or do they relate just to the individual Department involved?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: The concern in this regard is how this matter is monitored and how other Departments are picking up on it. While the information may be available, I wonder how aware other Departments are of its existence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: One of the duties of the Information Commissioner is to identify where Departments have not complied fully with or created difficulties with regard to FOI requests. The Office of the Information Commissioner identifies inconsistencies in how applications are dealt with by Departments. Is there a need for some form of standardised training, particularly on foot of this legislation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Therefore, a private company that is not any way a State operation but is receiving State payments would be subject to requests.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: I will take that on board. Some activity has been taking place in that regard and there has been correspondence and engagement between -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: The Information Commissioner's most recent engagement with the Department on the freedom of information legislation was in 2005. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Does the Information Commissioner intend to make a submission to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform or engage with his office in the coming weeks as part of this pre-scrutiny process?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Something is in process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: If I may digress for a moment, the joint committee had a discussion with representatives of Anti-Deportation Ireland earlier this afternoon. At first glance, one could ask what the relevance of the Freedom of Information Act is to issues pertaining to refugees, asylum seekers and so forth. However, our discussion was very engaging and enlightening as it seems it is not possible to obtain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: We also heard that some official agencies are covered to a greater extent than others. For example, services to accommodation centres for asylum seekers are subcontracted, which means that a centre may be managed by a third party which has won a contract from the State following a tender process. It is proposed that non-governmental organisations such as development agencies working in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: We will commence session five in our advance scrutiny of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012. We are joined by the Information Commissioners, Ms Emily O'Reilly and Mr. Stephen Rafferty. They are both welcome. Ms O'Reilly's opening remarks will be followed by a question and answer session. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: I commend Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett in the light of what Mr. Bukha said. I was not too sure what we were going to be doing this afternoon. When our discussion started, my memories of working in this area started to come back to me quickly. In fairness to the Deputy, he is to be commended for having the foresight and vision to see that Anti-Deportation Ireland's concerns were of relevance...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: I think I tabled a parliamentary question on that issue to the Minister for Justice and Equality before Christmas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: The figure was quite startling and the breakdown in nationality was very distinct on who has been refused entry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Ciarán Lynch: Should the witness have further questions, we will take them. I am not trying to be uncompassionate to the day-to-day circumstances of the witnesses and the difficulties that they as individuals experience in different centres around the country. I have had first-hand experience of this in my previous job when I was very involved in setting up English and basic computer classes in centres...