I propose to take Questions Nos. 27, 34, 50 and 69 together.
I have seen the report of the Information Commissioner concerning non-disclosure provisions. The report was submitted to the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service as part of the process under section 32 of the Freedom of Information Acts whereby an authorised joint committee of both Houses of the Oireachtas is required to review from time to time the operation of non-disclosure provisions in other enactments that are not listed in the Third Schedule to the Freedom of Information Acts. I understand the joint committee is undertaking such a review at present and is dealing with reports it has received from Ministers and the Information Commissioner's report in this context.
I am aware of the views expressed by the Information Commissioner on extension of the Freedom of Information Acts. Freedom of information has been extended from 67 bodies since April 1998 to almost 400 today. Regulations to extend the Acts to more than 100 other bodies will be brought forward shortly. As regards further extensions, I would refer to the reply I gave the House on 28 February in which I indicated that extension of the Acts to a number of other bodies is being considered. The question of observations being sought from the Information Commissioner on draft legislation would be determined on a case-by-case basis. I see no reason to change that approach. I have no proposals for the Information Commissioner to be consulted on the merits of applying the Acts to particular bodies.
Regarding the Information Commissioner's suggestion for a non-disclosure Act, this clearly represents the Commissioner's view and what she believes should be in place for freedom of information purposes. However, the suggestion may not take fully into account the existence of the legal frameworks covering the large number of other legislative regimes that include non-disclosure provisions. I am not convinced that it would assist transparency, accessibility or legal clarity for those legal structures to have all non-disclosure provisions codified into a separate Act. The legislative change suggested by the Information Commissioner would also require a major review of the Statute Book and amendments to a wide range of acts to achieve the cross references needed. The existing arrangement appears to be clearer, whereby the Oireachtas addresses all new legislation separately and a non-disclosure provision is included or not according to the scheme of the particular Bill; if a non-disclosure provision is not listed in the Third Schedule to the Freedom of Information Acts, it is subject to review under section 32.