Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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931. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if, in the absence of any competition to Irish Rail, he is of the opinion that Irish Rail can legitimately use the excuse of commercial sensitivity to refuse to provide information to elected representatives. [18627/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Iarnród Éireann is a commercial Sate company and, while it is a monopoly rail provider in the State, it does face competition from, for instance, Bus Éireann and private bus companies in the inter-city market. Nonetheless, I supported its inclusion under Freedom of Information and the draft Bill currently before the Oireachtas extends FOI to Iarnród Éireann. Under the current proposals exemptions will be allowed for the commercial activities of Rosslare Europort and the fully commercial rail freight operations of the company. When FOI is extended to Iarnród Éireann, release of information by the company will of course be subject to the provisions of the legislation including exemptions on grounds of commercial sensitivity.  

I expect that Iarnród Éireann would apply the same commercial sensitivity test as used in FOI when responding to elected members. If the Deputy has specific concerns about the approach being adopted by Iarnród Éireann, if he forwards them to my office I will discuss the matter further with the Company.