The Health Information and Quality Authority will be covered by the Freedom of Information Act, Minister for Health Mary Harney told the Dáil.
"All its records will come within the scope of that Act and the public will have rights of access as defined within the Freedom of Information Act."
Speaking during the committee stage of the Health Bill 2006, Ms Harney also said that provision would be made for for the marriage of persons who were seriously ill. She said that the present marriage laws required the ceremony to be held in a public place, but this could prevent the marriage of some seriously ill people.
The law was being changed to allow for marriages to take place in a person's home, or other private places, subject to agreement with the person performing the ceremony.
Ms Harney said that she also proposed to amend the Health Bill to introduce legislation to provide for "protected disclosure" in the health sector.
The term "protected disclosure" meant that where a person made a disclosure in good faith, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation, that person was protected from civil liability.
"If the person is an employee in an organisation providing a health service, he or she is protected from victimisation by employers where making a disclosure in good faith in accordance with the provisions of the legislation." In addition, said Ms Harney, any person who made a report to a professional regulatory body could benefit from those provisions.
"However, to ensure that that the provisions are not abused, the protections do not apply where the person making the disclosures does so knowing that the disclosure is false or misleading or where he or she made the disclosure recklessly without regard to whether it was false or misleading, frivolous or vexatious."
Ms Harney said that the legislation required the HSE and certain health corporate bodies to establish procedures so employees could report matters of concern.
