Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the notion that one could solve the problem to which the Deputy referred by making all personal communications amenable to FOI legislation, that is not a road I would travel. This issue was put to the information commissioner as far back as 2003. There was a question about whether people would not keep records or keep them in a different way because of FOI legislation. The information commissioner responded to the Committee on Finance and the Public Service to this effect:

I would certainly feel it would be rash on my part to say, "I better not keep records because of freedom of information." The reverse is true.

I think people will want to have on record the policy issues dealt with.

The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, was referring to the fact that if he had confidential meetings with potential investors, who would not put a cent into the country if they knew we were even discussing this, they should not come into the public domain.