Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I join other speakers in welcoming the decision by the Government to defer further consideration of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill until next Thursday, which is a positive and sensible measure. The deliberations of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service are important from the point of view of allowing the five Members of this House have an input, although any Member can attend to hear the views of the expert group. There was a distinct unease, however, on the part of Government Senators of both parties in terms of the content of the Bill and the way it was being rushed through the House at the dictates of the Cabinet. We will now be in a position where we will be informed on a much better basis, first, by the commissioner's report, the contents of which we are still only absorbing, and, second, by the meeting about to take place as well as the deliberations and dialogue with the expert working group.

I ask that particular emphasis be placed by the Government on one of the key elements of the Bill, which was debated belatedly in the House yesterday evening, namely, the definition of "Government". I will, however, leave that matter for another day.

On the way we do our work in this House, I plead with the Leader to please refrain from guillotining measures that come before it in the future and to examine the need to stagger debate. There are separate Stages to the legislative process. Committee Stage should be taken separately from Report Stage on which other amendments can be tabled on the basis of the deliberations on Committee Stage. It is wrong to lump the whole lot together and take Committee and Remaining Stages on the one day. We do not have access to resources while those on the Government side of the House have a plethora of advisers. If the other House has a definite arrangement in regard to the way legislation is taken, we should have the same arrangement in this House.

Last week the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy Parlon, indicated that it was the Government's intention to sell surplus State property on which I seek early clarification. Will the sale include rural Garda stations? The Government gave a clear indication in 1997, in the run-up to the general election, and again in 2002, also in the run-up to the general election, that rural Garda stations would not be sold. The rural policing system is already depleted. If the Government was to sell off rural Garda stations with the Green Box through which somebody can speak to a central monitoring unit, it would be the ultimate abandonment of policing in rural Ireland. I ask for an early debate to establish what properties are to be sold and to clarify whether rural Garda stations are to be included in the general sale of State property.