Charlie McCreevy (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I will not accept these amendments. The Interpretation Act 1937 provides that in the absence of contrary intention, "person" includes the body corporate. The advice of the Attorney General is that the long title of the Freedom of Information Act which refers to members of the public contains such a contrary intention. The Act provides a right of access to records for natural persons, namely, individuals. In practice, this has not given rise to any substantial difficulties. While bodies corporate are not natural persons, it is nevertheless open to any individual within a body corporate to make a FOI request for any information in an individual capacity.