Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

The fee is part of the Bill and we do not know where the money is going. As far as I am concerned we are dealing with further stealth taxes.

Another serious aspect of the legislation concerns the release of Cabinet information after a period of ten years rather than five. There may not be much difference but is this being introduced so that the present Government will not have to release information which would have been available to us under the previous Act? If this Government were not in power we might consider ten years a fair length of time but I question why this is being changed at this point in time.

The 1997 Act served the people and operated in their interest and for their good. This new Bill will not do that. I ask those on the Government side to consider this. The number of amendments in the new Bill will make a mockery of what we believe freedom of information should be about. I oppose the Bill.