Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is and I am delighted to stand in for her.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to welcome the passage of the motions on the Freedom of Information Act and the revised regime the Minister steered through the Houses which came into force on 14 October last year. It involves radical, comprehensive and sweeping reform of the freedom of information provisions. In particular, the creation of the reverse presumption was hugely welcome. The presumption that had applied under the 1997 Act was that a public body had to be specifically included in the FOI regime, whereas in the new regime the Minister introduced under the 2014 Act it was stated a public body so defined would automatically be subject to FOI legislation unless specifically exempted. That is a hugely welcome and progressive change in favour of transparency and it is in that context that we are ooking at these orders. As the Minister said, in respect of the order concerning exempted bodies, in whole or in part, he received quite a number of applications, but he has given just two bodies a full exemption, as he explained in full at the Oireachtas joint committee yesterday.

In respect of the other order concerning a different effective date for certain bodies under FOI legislation, I received, as I am sure a number of other colleagues did, an e-mail from the Irish Refugee Council on the effective date for two bodies, namely, the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. I understand the Irish Refugee Council has opposed the date provided for in the order covering these bodies. I cannot agree with it. It is important to state these bodies are being made subject to FOI legislation for the first time.