Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The package of proposals for reform of the freedom of information provisions that I put forward goes well beyond what was done to roll back some of the advances made in the original Bill but goes beyond the original Bill in making access to information as cheap as possible. Up to five hours of public service work, which will encompass the vast bulk of freedom of information requests, will be free under this system. I am conscious of the significant burden this will impose on the public service, which is a public service that I have reduced in quantum over the past few years because of economic necessity.

Bluntly, the notion that Sinn Féin expounds is that everything should be free, that there should be no cost to anything, no charges for anything and no taxes on anything, and that we should expend any volume of money on anything. My colleague in the other House took issue with Sinn Féin on that point, but there comes a time when one cannot be all things to all men. At the same time as every service imaginable should be free and open-ended, with no additional taxes of any kind, Sinn Féin is against any charge or any imposition of any kind. Sinn Féin is all things to all men. The fees regime we set out in this enactment, which I thought might be acknowledged for once, is among the most progressive, liberal and inexpensive in any state. That is where we should be, and the fact that we can be in that place while still in economic distress is a credit to everyone in the Houses.