Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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268. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to subject Bus Éireann to the Freedom of Information Act 2014 when introducing amending legislation to this Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10927/23]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The 2014 Freedom of Information Act expanded the scope of FOI to cover nearly 500 state entities directly. Generally FOI, applies by default to public bodies, that is those which were created by the state or have significant state involvement in their governance structures.

In respect of bodies that operate in competitive marketplaces, the approach adopted since FOI first came into effect in 1998 is that such entities should not be subject to FOI in their own right. The rationale for this approach is the risk of the uneven competitive market environment 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. Moreover, very significant information is available on the activities of these commercial companies reflecting their obligations under company law, the information they provide to Government Departments and relevant sectoral regulators which is available for release under FOI or otherwise.

However, it may also be noted a comprehensive review of the Freedom of Information regime is currently nearing completion. One of the issues currently under consideration, and around which submissions were sought in a public consultation, relates to designating which bodies are subject to FOI.