Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The first item on the Order of Business regarding the designation of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service is simply a matter of dealing with the question of which groups and institutions should be subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 1997. Recently we received the annual report of the Information Commissioner which has been dealt with by the Committee on Finance and the Public Service, which had a meeting with the commissioner yesterday. The issues arising are astounding and are much worse than those which arose last year when the Act was amended. The implications and consequences of this amendment are far worse than we ever expected and we should review this in the autumn. Requests for information have reduced by 80% in some cases. We all agreed people were abusing the Act but this statistic points to people not being able to use the Act. Ireland is the only country which sets a charge of €150 for an appeal to an information commissioner. As far as our Information Commissioner is concerned, her job is stalled. The flow of information has been stopped. A number of weeks ago, Senator Brian Hayes asked for a debate on the report. We should come back to it in the autumn as there is no immediate rush to have a debate. However, it should be made clear to Government that this is not good enough.