Seanad debates
Tuesday, 11 March 2003
Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.
It was the same Administration which provided the necessary funding for the Act. However, I doubt that any Member would accept that a request from one individual should cost over €100,000 to carry out the required research. It cost €127,000 to deal with one request from an individual under the Act. That is an abuse of the legislation. Furthermore, the Minister has not so indicated and, contrary to some media reports, the level of fees has not been decided upon. However, such provision was made in the original Bill. It will be a matter for the Government and the Minister to decide on the implementation of this section. Before the ball has even been thrown in for the start of the game, however, the Labour Party wants to pull the plug.
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