Seanad debates
Thursday, 20 March 2003
Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages.
The group – we are talking about senior civil servants of high calibre and integrity – was not motivated by avoidance of political embarrassment but by a genuine concern that the process of government was in danger of suffering under the existing system which had an element of experimentation to it. It had had five years and was perhaps time to adjust it. It is not a question of drawing back completely on the 1997 Act because all this information will be available after ten years as opposed to the 30 which applied previously. There is a good case for this provision.
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