Alex White (Labour)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 10, before section 4, but in Part 1, to insert the following new section:

"4.—On the cessation date, the Freedom of Information Act 1997 is amended by inserting—

(a) in paragraph 1(2) of the First Schedule, "the Central Bank of Ireland,", and

(b) in Part I of the Third Schedule at the end thereof—

(i) in column (2), "Central Bank Acts 1942 to 2010", and

(ii) in column (3), "any provision" opposite the mention in column (2) of the Consumer Protection Act 2007.".

I operate on the basis that the application of the Freedom of Information Act 1997 should be the default rule across public administration.

I do not exclude from that the operation of the Central Bank, especially in circumstances where such relatively radical changes are being brought about in the regulatory system and in the Central Bank, the decisions that are relevant and those we debated on Second Stage. I have made the point many times in debates on the application of the Freedom of Information Act that this ought to be the position. In other words, it should be incumbent on the Government to demonstrate why the Freedom of Information Act ought not to apply rather than it being necessary for us to argue it should. In those circumstances, we tabled the amendment to seek to persuade the Minister, even at this late hour in both the day and the passage of the Bill, that it would and should be appropriate for the Freedom of Information Act to apply to the Central Bank of Ireland in its new manifestation.

I am interested to hear what the Minister will say in response to this amendment, on the basis that the default position should be the application of the Act rather than its non-application.