Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

It looked like one of the extraordinary omissions in the 1997 Act that no mechanism for the withdrawal of a request was in place. As we all know, much horse trading went on. One would receive a telephone call from the Department saying that information would be given to a person more quickly if he or she would withdraw the request. Certain Departments have been extremely facilitating in this regard. Senator McDowell mentioned the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Not only did it provide information under the Freedom of Information Act, it had a special section that encouraged Members to withdraw parliamentary questions on the basis that one would receive the information within a day or two rather than the mandatory four or five days.

It looks good and seems sensible to put the mechanism in place, yet by enshrining this in legislation the danger is that it could lead to intimidation. A Department could say that if one did not withdraw a request, it would drag out the process interminably. While there are upsides and downsides to this, the measure seems sensible.