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ANOTHER YEAR HAS passed and no additional bodies have been brought under the remit of the Freedom of Information Act.
Despite being happy with various Government-promised legislation, the Information Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly still had issues to raise in her annual report for 2011.
She has welcomed plans to restore the Freedom of Information Act 1997 to what it was before the 2003 amendments, which have been described as a step back from the commitment to openness, transparency and accountability. The changes restricted access to certain information held by the Government and other public agencies.
“I understand that the legislation is in the drafting stage and I would urge that the changes be implemented as soon as possible,” she said.
O’Reilly wishes to see NAMA, the NTMA, the Central Bank, the Garda Siochána and other public bodies brought into the scope of the restored 1997 Act. She also wants the original act’s vision for access to records of Government after five years instead of the current wait period of a decade realised.
Another example is that communications between ministers relating to a matter before Government are now fully protected, whereas previously, these records were potentially releasable provided they did not reveal a statement made at a Government meeting, she said.
In 2011, some 16,517 requests were made to public bodies under the FOI Act. The majority were made to the HSE and about a third to Government departments and state bodies. Local authorities received 9 per cent of all requests.
About 10 per cent came from journalists but the vast majority – 66 per cent – were of the personal category and submitted by a client of the public body.
Altogether, €87,439 was charged to those requesting information by the various bodies.
O’Reilly also gave details of the long-awaited judgement in the ‘Rotunda case’ which involved the hospital refusing to disclose the age of the applicant’s mother when she gave birth to him in 1922. The Supreme Court eventually decided that the age was protected by the confidentiality provisions of the FOI Act.
The Ombudsman, who fought for the release of the information, said the decision could impede on the implementation of a specific recommendation made by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in the Ryan Report because FOI requests for such “origins information” (personal information for people who grew up separated from their parents and family) are likely to be refused.
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She can forget about getting freedom of information from NAMA- the previous FF government specifically wrote the NAMA Act 2009 with that pesky Freedom of Information in mind and it categorically states that NAMA is to be excluded from FOI requests, due to ‘sensitive commercial interests’ blah de blah…
FG/Lab have done nothing to change this as too many of their barrister and accountant pals are making €200k+ per year and they kinda like their untouchable status while they go sorting out their mates with favorable property deals, all subsidized by the Irish taxpayer.
Journalists or the public submitting FOI requests would not be conducive to the dodgy deals being done by NAMA and their well connected employees. They don’t want us to find out who they are selling the property to and at what price.
It all stinks to high hell and the current government is complicit in this.
Well said Derek!
It is irresponsible and naive of Emily O’Reilly to persistently demand that information held by the Garda Siochana be released to the public in the name of ‘human rights’.
Information held by the Garda is sensitive and confidential to the organisation for reasons of national security. Were it to be made subject to FOI laws, criminals- whom I suspect would make up the bulk of the applicants seeking information- would be able to ascertain the type of data on file about them. This would give criminals an insight into Garda operational procedures. This is an insight the Garda -and society – can do without: a criminal should be kept guessing and should never have the upper-hand. You can just imagine the street scenario: “I’m making a complaint against you to the Garda Ombudsman and I’ll be making a Freedom of Information request as well so you better watch what you write about me”!
I presume (and hope) the FOI requests would not extend to ‘intelligence’ reports because then they would cease to constitute ‘intelligence’.
I’m all for ‘human rights’ within reason, but I think Emily O’Reilly should back off on this one. The government should put this proposal where it belongs: the bin.
yea heaven forbid the gards be held accountable for anything at all….complete impunity and secrecy is what they need to ”keep the peace’.’
Central banks need to be see through!
Does anybody know what wages John O Shea of Goal gets, Try asking the freedom of information that and see how far you get.
I thought all sales of property had to be registered? Seems to me that with a little digging a journalist should be able to ferret out this information for us. As to excluding NAMA from FOI it’s ridiculous. Aren’t Irish politicians lucky they don’t live in Sweden. There you can find out anyones income as all tax records are freely available online. Now that would be something in Ireland!
She can bark all she wants who will listen!.. This same story was reported here last year with the same outcome!
And almost every taxpayer is waiting for criminal proceedings to be issued against actors that had a hand in bringing the banks to their knees. In the name of Moses, when on earth will the investigations into the crisis lead to prosecutions?
Adam if you think that the political class are going to convict their own you are wrong ,can you imagine seanie in there singing about all the corruption he was involved in and he hanging the ruling class out to dry,we are every bit as corrupt at the top in ireland as any country in africa .
The Central Bank will never be brought under the FOI Act: too much to hide! It caused this crisis!
Many promises were made before the elections , Promises made before the elections do not seem to count as they are too busy thinking up new ways of getting what few bob you might have in your pocket, they will not be happy until they have bled us dry, eaten bread is soon forgotten .
have your say