The Information Commissioner, whose decision to release school examination results to the media is being appealed to the High Court, said last night his decision was not based on the rights or wrongs of league tables.
Mr Kevin Murphy said he came to the decision because he did not feel it would be justified under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold the information. Mr Murphy made his position clear in a presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service.
"I recently completed a review dealing with this issue and I understand that my decision will be the subject of an appeal to the High Court. In the circumstances, I do not feel able to go into this question in great detail." The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, announced on Tuesday that he was mounting a legal challenge to Mr Murphy's decision and would seek to have the publication of school league tables, based mainly on Leaving Certificate results, banned.
The commissioner also referred to the so-called Ansbacher list and said the misleading impression had been created that he supported the view that the names of individuals on the list should be released.
"I need hardly remind the committee that my interim report never suggested anything of the kind," he said.
"The report was concerned solely with the question of whether the exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act address the concerns of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment regarding the possibility that release of certain types of information could compromise a criminal investigation or cause unwarranted public intrusion into the private affairs of a company. I did not accept the reasons advanced by the Department for the omission of this provision from the third schedule."