Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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131. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will include semi State bodies such as Coillte and Bord na Móna in the Freedom of Information Bill 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51765/13]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Freedom of Information Bill 2013 is in the course of its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Where it is proposed that a body should be exempt in full from the freedom of information legislation, that body is included in Schedule 1 Part 2 of the Bill. Both Bord na Mona and Coillte Teoranta are included in Schedule 1 Part 2.

I believe that commercial state bodies should not, in general, be subject to FOI requirements because of the uneven competitive playing field that would be created in circumstances that commercial state bodies operating in a competitive market were subject to FOI but their privately-owned market competitors were not. This would be expected to have an adverse impact on the commercial position of the state body in question, which would not be in the public interest or consistent with the need to safeguard the State’s economic and financial interests.

It is on that basis that both Bord na Mona and Coillte Teoranta are proposed for exclusion from the application of FOI under the new legislation.