Seanad debates

Tuesday, 4 March 2003

Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed).

 

This legislation basically means that certificates can be thrown around like confetti at a wedding. The certificate will become the blanket of secrecy which this Bill intends to wrap around the deliberations of Government. Routine policy information can now be put beyond the appeals process by the use of these certificates in the framework contained in the new Bill. This is probably the most far-reaching restriction on information in the Bill. We intend to put down many amendments on Committee Stage. The legislation will allow a Government that is hostile to the release of information, as this Government clearly is, to use certificates to label information as relating to unresolved policy issues. The only route of appeal will be the High Court. Who has funds for that?

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