The Government plans to defy opposition to the curtailment of the Freedom of Information Act this week by pushing its legislation through all its stages in the Seanad while voting down a Labour motion in the Dáil to postpone the changes, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent
In a move described as "beyond arrogance" by the Green Party last night, it was confirmed that both the senior and junior ministers responsible for the legislation - Mr Charlie McCreevy and Mr Tom Parlon - will go the Cheltenham horse-racing festival this week. They will therefore absent themselves from debates in the Dáil, the Seanad and an Oireachtas committee on the controversial Bill.
Neither will take the debate in the Seanad as would be usual, leaving a junior minister from another Department to attend. This person - expected to be the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Michael Ahern - is likely to be under instruction to reject all amendments.
Mr McCreevy and Mr Parlon will also be absent from the debate on a Labour Party motion on the issue on Tuesday and Wednesday, and from a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service, which is to hear evidence on Thursday on whether the 1997 Freedom of Information Act should be changed.
Fine Gael, Labour and other opposition senators said yesterday they would disrupt and delay Seanad procedures in every way possible this week unless the Government agreed to slow down the passage of the Bill through the Oireachtas.
The Opposition wants consideration of the Coalition's plan to curtail the 1997 Act postponed until the Oireachtas committee's deliberations are complete.
However, the Government has signalled that it regards the committee's hearings as irrelevant to the legislation, and says it will continue in its plan to hold the committee stage of the Bill - the stage during which the Bill is discussed line by line and where amendments can be put forward - this week in the Seanad. It wants to finish the report and final stages of the Bill on Thursday, allowing it to stay on course to have the Bill through the Dáil before Easter.
The Fine Gael leader in the Seanad, Mr Brian Hayes, said yesterday that it was unprecedented and unacceptable "to have the committee and report stages of a Bill going on while a committee of the House is taking hearings on the same Bill. The Bill is being railroaded through by senior ministers who are going to the races.
"It's a waste of our time to have a committee stage where the instruction is that no amendments will be taken. If this is not postponed we will be opposing the order of business each day and doing everything we can to make life difficult for them. The length of time for consideration of this Bill is just too short."
Meanwhile, Labour will use its private members' time in the Dáil tomorrow and Wednesday evening to debate a motion calling for the changes to be postponed for a year, pending consultation with interested parties.
The Labour Bill would extend the review period for another year, and would extend the original five-year exemption on the release of Cabinet papers by a year as well.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said yesterday that this would resolve the Government's immediate dilemma, while allowing enough time for consultation on long-term changes.
The Green Party finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, yesterday accused the Government of treating parliamentary democracy with contempt.
"The fact that neither of the Ministers at the Department of Finance will deign to appear at this week's meetings of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service, preferring instead to watch horse-racing at Cheltenham, is an act that goes beyond arrogance," he said.