John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

Section 4(1) of the original Act states that a head may delegate in writing to a member of the staff of the public body concerned any of the functions of the head, and so on. If the head is delegating to a member of staff in writing then that is "FOI-able". If I or any member of the public rang the county secretary of Kildare County Council and asked who the FOI officer was, that information would be readily available.

It is unnecessary bureaucracy to have to publish this in Iris Oifigiúil. The number of people who read Iris Oifigiúil is quite small and they are probably the people who know who the delegated person is anyway. From a common sense perspective I see no necessity for subsection (5). It is sensible to amend it.