Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

The original drafting, which refers solely to disruption of "other work" as opposed to "the work" of a Department or public body, is a little illogical. If the case for rejecting a request is prima facie unreasonable, there is a strong chance a dissatisfied requester would make an appeal to the Information Commissioner. We should move away from the notion that civil servants will be prone to abuse the Act. The legislation is open to public scrutiny and we have an Information Commissioner to whom appeals can be and are made. The assumption that public servants will abuse this provision is not justified.