Officials in my Department are currently examining the issues arising from the intended extension of Freedom of Information provisions to specific functions in An Garda Síochána.
The Vocational Education Committees will be brought in under the Act in the next extension to the Act which is currently being worked on by officials of my Department.
With regard to the National Treasury Management Agency I do not propose to extend FOI to this body for reasons of commercial sensitivity. In relation to the Agency's role as the State Claims Agency, most of its work is covered by legal privilege and it is considered that a partial application of FOI to the State Claims Agency would not be warranted.
NAMA has a commercial mandate to obtain maximum value for the taxpayer and, to achieve this objective it is required to enter into complex commercial negotiations with financial institutions and developers, the nature of which requires in many instances a high degree of commercial confidentiality and therefore it is not appropriate to extend FOI to this body.