The Freedom of Information Bill 2013 (the "Bill") was
published on 25 July 2013 by the Minister for Public Expenditure
and Reform, Brendan Howlin (the "Minister"). The reform
rendered by this Bill represents the most significant development
in freedom of information ("FOI") law in Ireland in over
a decade. The Minister explained that the Bill is intended to
"restore the legislation and extend it to almost all
public bodies, as well as consolidating and modernising it to
improve the functioning of the Act and to improve the structure of
the legislative framework".
The Bill represents a major overhaul of the current legislation,
the Freedom of Information Act 1997, as amended by the Freedom Of
Information (Amendment) Act 2003 (together the "existing
Act"), and, if the Bill is enacted in its present form, the
scope of FOI will be expanded to include almost all public bodies
(including a number of high profile public bodies), as opposed to
the specific schedule of
