Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

-----to note that it appears to be an all-party drift away from it. I was struck when the Bill was introduced by the amount of criticism to the effect that the Minister has too much power and how that vanished during the debates.

There is a high degree of transparency in the legislation. The National Treasury Management Agency is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Senator Alex White made a fair point when he stated that commercial information does not have to be disclosed under the freedom of information legislation. In light of the nature of NAMA, the processing of such confidential commercial information and of freedom of information requests would constitute a burden on the agency. For these reasons, I am not able to accept the amendments.