Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Henry's amendment on the basis of both her arguments and those of Senator McDowell. Looking at the original Bill one can see that "[a] head may refuse to grant a request under section 7" if certain conditions apply. Now we are taking away any discretion on the part of the head of a Department of the assigned person to make a decision to release information. Does that not show an enormous lack of faith in the judgment of their fellow heads of Department by those who drafted this legislation, the so-called expert group? They cannot even allow them the discretion of deciding whether, in extremis, such a record could be released under the terms of the 1997 Act. We all know that in the past this discretion was exercised stringently and only in the most extreme circumstances. Even that possibility has now been withdrawn. Arguments have been made that we are bringing down an information iron curtain. This is an example of just how restrictive this legislation is.