Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I support the amendment to the Order of Business and the comments made about it. The proposal to amend the Freedom of Information Act will be strenuously opposed by this side of the House. The rush to pass the legislation is unseemly, to say the least. It is clearly an attempt by the Government to control information on its daily activities. It is also linked to the amount being spent on spin doctors and propaganda and the manner in which the Government chooses selectively to leak reports on health boards, rail reviews and other major decisions. It is a leak Government, on the one hand, and a controlling Government, on the other. This attempt to alter the freedom of information legislation will, I hope, be seen for what it is, an insidious and dangerous attempt by the Government to control the amount of information the people are getting about its decisions.