Fine Gael has accused the Government of "slowly strangling" the Freedom of Information Act and of failing to comply with its own recommended procedures when it drew up regulations introducing fees for requests.
In its attack on the Government, party leader, Mr Enda Kenny, cites a letter from the Office of the Information Commissioner to the Department of Finance which expresses concern about the introduction of the regulations.
In the letter, the office claims it was not consulted on the regulations and was only given four days notice to make arrangements for the new rules.
This, it says, is contrary to the rules contained in a document published by the Taoiseach, which calls for the views of agencies required to implement regulations to be "sought in good time".
Mr Kenny said: "This latest revelation is yet another indication that the FF/PD Government is intent on strangling the operation of the Freedom of Information Act."
"As a result of the changes introduced by this Government the FOI Act will be dead and buried by the end of 2003," he claimed.
Mr Kenny said: "Earlier this year the Government railroaded through an amending Act which excludes large areas of public affairs from the Act."
"The total number of FOI requests for all departments in the three months following the enactment of the curtailed FOI Act was 29 per cent down on the previous three months."
"This was done with no consultation and the Government used its majority to guillotine the Bill through the Oireachtas. Again we see these Regulations being made with no advance consultation, even with the Information Commissioner who is the statutory watchdog in this area," he said.
