Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Labour Party for introducing this Private Members' Bill. It is a better use of Private Member's business to debate a Bill rather than a motion on a particular issue. It is important the effort taken in the preparation of such a Bill is acknowledged.

The Government side, however, will not support this Bill. As the Minister of State outlined, since 1997 the Freedom of Information Act has served the country well. It was amended in 2003 and the schedule of bodies that falls under its remit has been extended on a constant basis.

When I was chief executive officer of Sligo Chamber of Commerce, I used the legislation in preparation for the chamber's bid to become a gateway centre under the national spatial strategy. Our strategy was to wait until the last possible moment and request the submissions from the other 114 towns. We then based our bid on the information we gleaned.

The freedom of information process is easy to use and not as prohibitive as some Members claimed. The costs structure involved in the process is more than reasonable. While there has been a reduction in requests since the introduction of fees in 2003, it may be found that over the entire period of the legislation, requests were already in decline.

One reason for a reduction in requests may be that more information is readily available through websites and other publications. Increasingly, our system of government is becoming more transparent. This should not be confused with individuals or groups having frustrations with the workings of some State agencies, most notably the HSE, with which nearly every Member has an issue.

The Freedom of Information Act has enshrined the rights of individuals as citizens and shareholders of public knowledge. It gives them the right to examine and review the deliberations and processes of public bodies. Every citizen has the right to know what information is held in Government records about him or her personally, subject to certain exemptions to protect key interests, to inspect files held about or relating to him or her and to have inaccurate material on file corrected. Groups and individuals who are affected by decisions of public bodies should have the right to know the criteria used in making those decisions. Decisions by public bodies should be more open to public scrutiny, thus providing greater appreciation of the issues involved in policy decisions and stronger public ownership and acceptance of decisions made.

The Act established three new statutory rights, namely, the legal right for each person to access information held by public bodies; the legal right for each person to have official information relating to himself or herself amended where it is incomplete, incorrect or misleading; and the legal right to obtain reasons for decisions affecting oneself. The main features of the Act have not required amendment since 1997. Further bodies will be included later this year under the Act. As with all legislation, as circumstances change we must keep an open mind. I admit some provisions of the Labour Party's Bill merit further reflection and I am sure the Minister will take them on board.

Requesting information from the HSE has become a lengthy process. All Members have different views on the health board system before the HSE's establishment. In my experience, one could inquire about a particular aspect of health services from the former North Western Health Board and have an answer in days. With the HSE, such inquiries can take up to several weeks. An answer will go from various bodies to the Minister and then the final draft probably goes to a public relations agency. This is not good value for money. The review of the public services as a whole, which has been alluded to by the Tánaiste, Deputy Cowen, and the release of the OECD report yesterday is to be welcomed. These could help with the frustrations many of us feel towards several Government agents, with the HSE at the top of that list.

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this Private Members' Bill. Perhaps we could see more of such Bills from the Fine Gael and Independent groups in the Opposition Private Members' time. By doing this we can come up with genuine improvements. While we oppose the Bill on this occasion, I am sure it could form the basis of improvements to legislation in the future.