Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct that this issue was debated in the Dáil. Obviously, I am anxious that there be a reasonable period of retrospection. I am under considerable pressure not to have retrospection for six full calendar years, as I am proposing to do, but I consider it desirable and practicable. However, one must consider the issue of practicality when one intends to do something retrospectively. Most laws are not retrospective but apply from a current date. To provide that people are obliged to marshal, organise, catalogue and present data, in freedom of information form, for the last six years is a big burden. On balance, it is as far as it practicably can be done.