Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

The manner in which the Opposition earlier indicated its total revulsion for the Bill exemplified the general public revulsion at the announcement of its publication, which came like a bolt from the blue last Friday. It had been signalled in advance that the Government intended to tamper with the Freedom of Information Act because it penetrated too deeply into what was happening behind closed doors at Government and official level.

Nobody in their wildest dreams could have foreseen the extent of the amendments proposed by the Government in the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003. This Bill effectively is not amending legislation; it is a repeal of the Freedom of Information Act 1997. It turns on its head the main and pivotal functions and thrust of that Act. It literally castrates the Act from the point of view of making available information to which individuals, the general public and the media have an absolute right. It will rank as one of the most arrogant, negative, sinister, subversive and heavy-handed pieces of legislation ever brought before the Oireachtas.