The Minister for Finance has rejected criticism by the Information Commissioner, Mr Kevin Murphy, of the proposed controversial amendments to the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr McCreevy told the Dáil last night that the Government would only introduce minor amendments to the Act, despite the concerns raised by Mr Murphy in a detailed report.
The Minister said the report had been examined by his officials in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General.
While it had been a useful contribution to the debate on the Bill, he said he was "fully satisfied" that any concerns raised in this report about the Government's Bill were not justified.
Mr McCreevy said the technical amendments proposed by the Information Commissioner had already been submitted to and discussed with the FOI central policy unit of his Department and a number of them were taken on board in drafting the Bill.
The Minister's remarks came following strong protests by the Opposition, who accused the Government of "filleting" the Act.
A number of votes were challenged by the Opposition and quorums were sought as the House sat late to consider the Government's proposals contained in the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill which recently had a stormy passage through the Seanad.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said the late sittings of the Dáil for two nights was "purely a fig-leaf for the Government to give the impression that it is providing adequate time to deal with the undermining of the Freedom of Information Act".
Mr McCreevy said the framers of the original Act recognised that a period of protection for Government records was required. They included an exemption period of five years in the Act. However, he added, it had become clear that five years was not an adequate period for this purpose.
"I have no hesitation, therefore, in recommending to the Dáil that the restriction of five years for Government records should be raised to 10 years," Mr McCreevy said.
He added that the introduction of "up-front" fees for FOI requests was long overdue.
"There is a very significant administrative cost to FOI. A recent internal survey in my own Department estimated that, on average, FOI requests required eight hours of working time at a cost of €425 to the taxpayer.
"I understand that in other departments similar surveys have produced higher estimates of the cost."
He added that the Bill contained a provision that would permit the Minister to prescribe fees for requests for access to records and for applications for review of decisions which must be paid before anything else happened.
"This is an entirely reasonable step which will allow the real cost to be covered."
Mr McCreevy said he saw no reason why the Act should allow wide "trawls" through the records of Government Departments and public bodies "in the hope of finding something that might justify a story".
Despite media reports, he added, the level of fees had not been decided. He would be giving careful consideration the setting of those fees and in doing so would be careful to strike a balance between the burden and cost of administering the legislation and the need to allow to continue to have access to information.
The Fine Gael spokesman on finance, Mr Richard Bruton, said the Government's Bill was deeply flawed.
The Labour spokeswoman on justice, Ms Joan Burton, said the shadow over the Bill was the "haunting conclusion" of the late Chief Justice Hamilton at the Beef tribunal.
He had observed that there would be no necessity for the tribunal, and a lot of money and time would have been saved if questions asked in the Dáil were answered.