Freedom of information cannot be the main factor in determining how the Government conducts its business, the Minister for Finance has told the Dáil.
Mr McCreevy, the sponsoring Minister for the legislation amending the existing Act, said that while freedom of information was important, "it cannot be allowed to interfere with the Government doing its business efficiently in the interests of the community".
Rejecting all the Opposition amendments in the final stages of the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill, Mr McCreevy reiterated that the "core principle of the Bill is that it's in the public interest that the institution of Cabinet works well and effectively". The Bill was narrow in focus and "strengthens the protection for records relating to Government business, it provides certainty in relation to the deliberative process of Departments and it contains a number of technical changes designed to improve the operation of the Act".
However, Fine Gael's spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said that this was a case of "Government knows best". The Minister "is blatantly telling us that Government knows best". This "is the paternalistic approach that we thought was dead and buried". The FoI Act "is not the plaything of the Government to be changed any time it causes embarrassment or a bit of difficulty".
He accused the Minister of seeking to withhold information with no evidence that the public interest demanded it. Mr Bruton said that not one Government minister had volunteered any case where information released had been damaging to the public interest. He had tabled parliamentary questions to each minister and even the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had said that he was "not aware of any case where disclosure by any office has had a significant negative impact on the public interest".
Sinn Féin's spokesman, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said the Minister was claiming that the existing Act had "in some way weakened the process of Government".
But a growing section of the population was recognising that the weakening of Government had nothing to do with the Freedom of Information Act but with the Government's "component parts".
The Green Party spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, condemned the Government's junior partner, the Progressive Democrats. Their absence during all stages of the debate "is particularly marked", he said. They "have been weak-kneed in this attack on civil liberties and when the party meets next weekend it can celebrate its role in constricting Irish democracy".
