Brendan Ryan (Labour)

If Members opposite will refrain from interrupting me I will do my best to be as brief as possible. I fully support what Senator Hayes has said. There is no logic of any kind which can justify the scale of fees for appeals to the Information Commissioner. The only logic is that it is a deterrent, as the commissioner said. What we have is a deliberate attempt to deter people from pursuing their rights under freedom of information legislation. That is an attack on the concept of freedom of information, or perhaps it means that only the rich can have the right to freedom of information. That, perhaps, reflects the view of the party opposite as well. We should debate these regulations, dispose of them and reject them.

The second issue concerns amendments to Bills made by the Dáil. One contains 30 amendments and it is 32 pages long, the other contains 62 amendments and is 36 pages long. Under a Standing Order of this House we cannot debate these amendments independently but as a single text. That Standing Order obviously envisaged minor amendments. I invite the Leader to move a motion to suspend that Standing Order so that we can have an intelligent debate and look at these 62 amendments, section by section, rather than dealing with 62 amendments.