The Freedom of Information Act is being abused, the Taoiseach told the Dail.

"People have devised major abuses of it, which will have to be looked at. I am not talking about journalists. I am not talking about politicians," said Mr Ahern. "There are very costly abuses, where Departments are being tied up in bureaucratic knots. There is an enormous amount of staff resources involved."

Given that journalists and politicians were excluded, the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, asked who was involved in the abuse. "Members of the public and private companies," Mr Ahern replied. "It is also being used by a number of commercial interests to try to decipher information which can be used against competitors. There are other areas, too."

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, asked if it was not the case that one company had been responsible for more Freedom of Information applications than virtually the entire general public put together. "That is more or less the case, yes," replied Mr Ahern. Mr Quinn said the Taoiseach had offered "substantially new and perhaps startling information", adding that he welcomed his frankness. He suggested that Mr Ahern ask one of his ministers to bring to the relevant committee of the House a summary of his concerns. There could a consensual legislative response, if required. Mr Ahern said he had asked the Government officials dealing with the Act to highlight the issues involved, and this could be made available to a committee of the House. The matter was first raised by Mr Quinn, who noted that the Taoiseach had said the Government was looking at extending the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. He asked if Mr Ahern was aware of unscripted comments made by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, in Cork last weekend, in which he expressed concerns about the restrictions which the Act imposed on decision-making processes within government.

Mr Martin, he added, had also indicated that the operation of the Act, as it was currently drafted, prevented "a brain-storming session", where different options would be put down on paper and there would be a subsequent difficulty in arriving at a conclusion.

Mr Ahern said the Government planned to extend the scope of the Act to cover other agencies in the months ahead. While the Government had no difficulty with the Act, there were problems which could not have been foreseen when it was first implemented.