Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

In his original contribution, while defending the public service, having come from such a background himself, Senator Mansergh said in his general experience the public service has operated the spirit of the Act almost to the letter. He stated there have been very few occasions on which it was open to abuse as such. The Information Commissioner's report gives a classic example of what can occur. I mentioned earlier the case of Mr. ABK and the Eastern Health Board. This relates directly to section 10(1)(e), which is the subject of these amendments. The report states:

The relevance of section 10(1)(e) was one of the issues considered by me in this case. The requester had sought access to records relating to himself, his former partner and his daughter. The Eastern Health Board (EHB) refused the request on the basis that all relevant information had already been made available to the requester by means of discovery in earlier court proceedings and that therefore the request was frivolous and vexatious within the meaning of section 10(1)(e).

I agree with Senator Mansergh in pointing out the difference in the meaning of words. When asked for his decision on appeal the Information Commissioner said: "In my review decision I found that the request could not be considered to be frivolous." This is a blatant example of the health board misinterpreting this and deliberately deciding the person was not entitled to the record on the basis that the request was both frivolous and vexatious. While the commissioner does not deal with the vexatious aspect, he states it could not be considered frivolous. He goes on to state: "However, I accepted that Mr. ABK's [the plaintiff's] purpose in making the request was to advance his case and, therefore, the request could not be said to be vexatious."

I have two problems with this. I have problems with the interpretation of frivolous and vexatious, and in the worst case scenario at least the existing Act should stand as it is without adding this other complicated addendum to it. That is why I tabled my amendment that the Government's proposal should be deleted.