Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

In defence of the Minister, he indicated in response to points Senator White and I made that he was willing to consider, perhaps by regulation rather than by amendment, reduced charges for certain categories. He has taken account of the debate in this regard.

I agree that this section is at the heart of the Bill. It involves reconciling the freedom of the deliberative process in government with freedom of information. There has been a huge advance compared with five years ago. Whereas then this information was only available after 30 years, even under the amending legislation it will be available after ten. That keeps us on the liberal side of information regimes elsewhere, especially that which obtains across the water.