In order to strike a balance between the need for retrospection, and the ability of bodies to be able to carry out their functions without undue administrative burden, the Government decided that the date of the 21^st of April 2008 which is provided for in the Act strikes the right balance for all new bodies coming under the 2014 FOI Act.

In the case of Irish Water as the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reforms explicit intention was that the Freedom of Information Act 2014 should apply only from the date of establishment (17 July 2013) and this intention sufficiently appears in the SI 140 of 2014 that is the date on which the Act is deemed to apply.

It was always Government Policy that in general Commercial State bodies should not be subject to FOI because of the competitive market in which they operate, the rationale being, the risk of an uneven competitive market environment – in other words, they would be competing with privately owned market operators who were not subject to FOI . However, this view changed with the progressing of the FOI Bill 2014 through the Oireachtas, amendments were made, and the Government decided that certain State Companies which operate in the monopoly market are no longer exempt from the Freedom of information Act 2014.
These State Companies are as follows;
• Irish Rail,
• ESB Networks,
• Gas Networks Ireland,
• Eirgrid.