Results 41-60 of 1,279 for speaker:Michael Ahern
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: We were out of government then.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: We do.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: We had it before that, if the Senator had given us a chance to talk.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: The Senator asked a different question.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: Is the Senator quoting Fergus Finlay?
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: I would like to inform Senator Brian Hayes that the appendix to which he referred was published on the Internet.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: The Information Commissioner. The commissioner's commentary gives a general overview of the main proposals in the Bill and a statement of his views on how decisions taken by him in the past would have been affected if the Government's proposed amendments had been operating at that time. The commentary is made under section 39 of the 1997 Act, which provides that the commissioner can prepare...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: Not now.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: Section 2 is a standard interpretation section that defines the words "record", "local authority", "factual information" and "week". These definitions are necessary to clarify and improve the operation of the FOI Act and I cannot accept the Senator's amendments. For the record, the amendments to which Senator O'Toole is referring have been available on the Internet for the past three weeks,...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: The Freedom of Information Act 1997 states that the definition of a "record" applies to records created after 21 April 1998. In a High Court case, some doubt was cast on whether or not an exact replica of a record was a new record for the purposes of the 1997 Act. The commissioner has drawn attention to the potential difficulties if this was found to be binding in law. For example, a record...
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: This suggestion was discussed with the Office of the Information Commissioner. It was decided that it could give rise to practical and legal problems if "person" were to be defined in this way.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: Senator Maurice Hayes raised a question on factual information. The Freedom of Information Act does not define this and the amendment seeks to rectify it. It is not an exhaustive definition as this would not be appropriate. The amendment is not intended to restrict the understanding of factual information, rather it seeks to clarify it.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: With regard to Senator Hayes's query about practical and legal problems, it does not apply in section 2 but I will give an example.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: A journalist makes a request on behalf of a newspaper but changes employer before a decision on that request is made. The journalist claims he made the request in a personal capacity and the newspaper claims it made the request. The public body is, therefore, drawn into a dispute. This issue is best left for guidance so it can be clarified at the time the request is made.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: I have been informed that there was a discussion with the Information Commissioner. The definition I have mentioned arose from that discussion.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: With regard to Senator McDowell's query, it is not possible to state categorically what is and what is not to be considered personal information. The purpose of defining factualâ
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: The purpose of defining factual information as including certain types of information is to clarify an area where there has been some uncertainty. This uncertainty was referred to by the high level group.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: With regard to the questions raised by Senator O'Toole, perhaps he would give us some time to come back to him with the answers.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: The reason we do not have this information is that the amendment was not tabled. If it had been tabled, we would have had it.
- Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (11 Mar 2003)
Michael Ahern: Surely the Senator knows what statistical information is. If he gets his dictionary out he will see. Surely he also knows what empirical information is.