David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this important amendment. I cannot imagine there would be any kind of commercial sensitivity around this. It is a utility and we need information and to be able to get at the facts. There is a curious system of "ring a ring a rosie", where, for example, there are city managers taking up posts and there are all kinds of interconnections between former and past issues. I am not saying there is anything sinister in this, and it may be very useful - I do not know. There is concern in Dublin City Council, for example, about the way in which it has been treated and the fact it claims it is not being paid for €2 billion of assets. Most of it is leaky pipes so I do not suppose there would be enormous international market, but perhaps there would and I am being naive in thinking there would not be. There is also the question of the council being left with the pensions of people who it is no longer employing, which might need further investigation, as does the question of equity in charging. While I cannot imagine it would happen with this Government involving the Labour Party, although it is no longer given to wearing socialist clothing, if there was any move towards privatisation by a subsequent Government, we would need to have this freedom of information available unless there are specific reasons against it. If the Minister has already given such reasons, I apologise because I was at a meeting with one of his other colleagues.