Seanad debates
Tuesday, 4 March 2003
Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed).
The Department of Finance and the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, are good examples of this. Shortly after the introduction of the Act, and following either the 1998 or 1999 budget, I and others requested a series of 30 or 40 papers on individual tax issues prepared by the tax strategy group. After some deliberation, the Department decided to provide them. This was good because it added a great deal to our knowledge of what happens pre-budget between Departments and within the Department of Finance. Each year since then, and outside the scope of the Act, the Department and Minister have decided to publish the papers of the tax strategy group on the Internet and to give them to the public in hard copy format. This would have been unthinkable five years ago.
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