Michael McCarthy (Labour)

It is a sad day for democracy when we have to come into the Upper House of the national Parliament to debate what it is intended to leave of the Freedom of Information Act. It is inherently contradictory in many respects, not least when one studies the Progressive Democrats' election campaign. We will never forget the sight of a particular candidate for that party who has been attributed with its success hanging out of trees like Tarzan, hanging up posters and warning us about the ills of a Fianna Fáil Administration and that the worst thing for democracy would be if Fianna Fáil got into Government on its own. He told people to vote for the Progressive Democrats which would be Fianna Fáil's watchdog. It is not even 12 months since Tarzan climbed up the pole somewhere around O'Connell Street and attempted to explain, in colourful detail, the ills of Fianna Fáil, yet today the Progressive Democrats are supporting an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act. All evening, it has denied it is guilty of guillotining the legislation but in this case, it is guilty of boning and rolling the Freedom of Information Act and throwing the remains to the dogs to eat.

The manner in which the legislation was introduced last Friday leaves a lot to be desired. It was known that this and the other House would not sit on Friday and that the Members of both Houses would return to their respective constituencies on Thursday evening. That meant that most of us received the Bill yesterday morning by post, although some of us did not receive it until we arrived home yesterday evening. We have not been given an appropriate amount of time to study the Bill in the detail required in order to debate it in one evening. It is unfair on Members who have been on the road since early morning and on the staff of this House who must remain here until all hours of the morning to satisfy some smug eagerness on the part of the Government which will say it is not guillotining the legislation but is giving us ample time to debate it. We will be walking around this House at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. like zombies wondering why this debate could not have been adjourned this evening to resume tomorrow and perhaps on Thursday.