THE INFORMATION Commissioner has urged that public bodies such as An Garda Síochána and agencies dealing with banking and immigration issues be brought under the scope of the freedom of information legislation as a matter of priority.
Speaking at the launch of her annual report yesterday, Emily O’Reilly welcomed the commitment of the Government to reform the Freedom of Information Acts and remove restrictions imposed in 2003 by a previous administration.
She said the Freedom of Information Act should apply to all public bodies, but if additional bodies or agencies were to be brought under the legislation by the Government on a phased basis, it should draw up a priority list.
The priority bodies should include An Garda Síochána, the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, the Judicial Appointment Advisory Board, the Central Bank, the National Treasury Management Agency and the National Asset Management Agency, she said.
“Exclusion of significant financial bodies such the NTMA, Nama and the Central Bank denies the general public of its right as taxpayers, who shoulder the burden of the country’s debt, to try and get to the truth of what happened,” she said.
Ms O’Reilly strongly disagreed with a recommendation in the recent Wright report on the Department of Finance which suggested that policy advice given to the Minister for Finance in relation to the Budget should not be released under freedom of information for at least five years.
She said this “betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding or ignorance” of freedom of information legislation, which already contained provisions protecting the financial and economic interests of the State.
“We need less secrecy rather than more secrecy,” she added
Ms O’Reilly also described as “totally unacceptable” moves that had been undertaken by the previous government to remove some public bodies from the scope of the freedom of information legislation without informing or consulting her office.
Ms O’Reilly said that there had been 15,249 requests made to public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009, an increase of 7 per cent from the previous year.
The programme for government provides that the Government will legislate “to restore the Freedom of Information Act to what it was before it was undermined by the outgoing government”, and that it “will extend its remit to other public bodies, including the administrative side of the Garda Síochána, subject to security exceptions”.
It also proposes to extend freedom of information and the Ombudsman Act to ensure that all statutory bodies, and all bodies significantly funded from the public purse, are covered.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the Dáil last month his department was carrying out preparatory work to implement these commitments.