Commissioner criticises FoI scope

The Information Commissioner has called for freedom of information regulations to change to open up  state papers on the workings of the National Assets Management Agency.

The decision to exclude the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) from the Freedom of Information Act will undermine public trust in the institution, the Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly has warned.

Ms O'Reilly said it was a "no brainer" that making Nama subject to FoI requests would help shore up public trust in the agency at a time when the public was looking for openness and transparency in the banking sector.

Speaking at the launch of her annual report, she added that Nama was now such an important part of people's lives that FoI access to it could "only be a good thing".

The commissioner said she understood that NAMA dealt with commercially sensitive information but there was already a Section 31 clause which provided for the withholding of such information in certain circumstances.

She contrasted the refusal to make Nama subject to the Freedom of InformationAct with the situation in the UK where both the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) are subject to similar requests.

She said that even when the requesters are refused information, the inclusion of Nama contributes to "good administration and governance within those public bodies".

She also criticised the proposal to exclude from the Act the enforcement section of the National Employment Rights Authority (Nera), which identifies employment abuses and breaches of the minimum wage.

It stems from a decision she made in September last year to allow the release of information about companies which were found by Nera to not be paying the minimum wage.

An FOI request last year was originally refused by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the parent body of Nera, on the basis that it might jeopardise attempts to recover outstanding monies for employees.

The commissioner responded that that publication of the names might have the opposite effect of encouraging greater cooperation from employers in breach of the national minimum wage. She overruled the department's objection.

Ms O'Reilly said she was surprised to receive correspondence from the Department in December that it was considering removing the enforcement functions of Nera from the Act.

She cited a report in yesterday's Irish Times about the exploitation of migrant domestic workers in Irish homes as evidence of the need for Nera and also warned that its functions would be diluted if it was excluded.

She also expressed disappointment that organisations including An Garda Síochána, the Central Bank, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) remain outside Freedom of Information.

At the same time, the enforcement functions of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), the road safety functions of the Road Safety Authority, the functions of the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds were no longer subject to FOIs.

In total 14,290 FOI requests were made last year, up 13 per cent on 2008. The number of requests to the Department of Finance was up 51 per cent.

The number of appeals to her office at 324 was up 7 per cent on 2008.


Ms O'Reilly was forced to issue three orders to public bodies for the release of information.

RTÉ was criticised for adding many extra hours' work to the commissioner's office after delaying access to credit card spending details by its executives. The others involved information on requests made to Cavan Town Council and the Department of Justice.

Labour's Joan Burton backed the calls for greater transparency and said the party would open state-run financial bodies to public scrutiny. "Citizens have real concerns about how the Government has been handling the economic, fiscal and financial crises that have been bogging this country down in recent years," Ms Burton said.

"There is genuine anger at the cack-handed manner in which the Government has responded to these problems and the provisions of the FoI Act provide one of the only ways for members of the public to get meaningful answers."