Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I happily second the proposal by Senator Brian Hayes regarding the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 2003. However, it is a mistake to state the legislation is not working as the Government intended. It filleted the Act and inhibited people applying to bodies outside Government control by imposing a charge of €150 per application to the Information Commissioner. Ireland is the only country in the commissioner's study that charges a fee of that scale while it is only one of two countries that even charges a fee. Our fee of €150 is ten times greater than the other charge while appeals to information commissioners in the other countries examined in the study are free. The Government made a decision to inhibit people making appeals which decision relates to freedom of information, not administrative inconvenience or cost. When the programme for Government was being negotiated in 1992, the one sticking point was Fianna Fáil's refusal to agree to a freedom of information Bill and we know why.