Seanad debates
Tuesday, 11 March 2003
Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.
The third area into which this is being extended is the area of personal information and this relates directly to the release of personal information to third parties. At present the general presumption is that if I make a request for records which contain personal information about someone else, normally I will be refused, but there is discretion on the part of the head of section or the person making the decision to release that information if he considers it in the public interest to do so. The exercise of that discretion will be unnecessarily and immediately curtailed if we bring in the provision in the first part of this amending section.
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