Freedom of Information: Minister supports 10-year embargo on release of cabinet papers
MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan has defended the Government’s decision to introduce changes in the operation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, despite strong criticism of the move yesterday from the Office of the Information Commissioner.
Mr Lenihan also ruled out any review of the decision, made five years ago, to introduce charges for non-personal requests made under the Act.
At a conference marking 10 years of the Freedom of Information Act, he said he would consider any proposals from information commissioner Emily O’Reilly on extending the scope of the Act. However, he said there “are sensitive security issues” which arise for organisations such as the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces in this regard.
Mr Lenihan said he was not willing to look again at the issue of charges for non-personal requests, which Ms O’Reilly and others claim has led to a significant fall off in information applications.
These charges, the abolition of which was also supported by a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development review, start at €15 for an initial request, rising up to €150 for an appeal to the commissioner.
Ms O’Reilly had made “various representations” about the FOI legislation, Mr Lenihan said.
“Some of them we’ve accepted and some of them we have not . . . The position on the charges is this: that the cost of processing the applications is very substantial, the charges are set at a very minimal level. Since the amending legislation was introduced in 2003, the basic fee level has not been increased and there are no plans on my desk to increase the fee.
“But it is a simple monetary disincentive to abuse of the system and there were cases under the old system where huge numbers of requests were being made by particular parties at very substantial cost to the exchequer. So I don’t think it is wrong that that disincentive is in there.”
Mr Lenihan also strongly defended the decision to amend the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to increase the timeframe for non-release of cabinet papers from five to 10 years.
“There are some matters in our State that are fundamental and the Government is one of them. It is important that cabinet decisions are not exposed to public view for a period of 10 years,” he said. “I think that’s a desirable state of affairs, because it’s important that the people have a government that can have a candid discussion among themselves about what is best for the country.”
Mr Lenihan was speaking in advance of a conference organised by the commissioner’s office and chaired by RTÉ presenter Cathal Mac Coille in Dublin to mark the 10th anniversary of the Act.
In his address, Mr Lenihan acknowledged that there had been a reduction in the number of information requests since the introduction of charges for non-personal requests.
However, he claimed it would be “too simplistic” if we were to attribute this “solely to the fee issue”, adding that the fall-off was also attributable to an increase in the amount of information published by public bodies.
In her keynote speech, Ms O’Reilly noted that the level of usage of the Freedom of Information Act was still “relatively healthy”, but said the decline in its use was a “direct result of the amendments to the Act made in 2003”.
“In particular, the use of FOI by the media has declined as a direct consequence of the fees,” she said.
Put simply but crudely, she added, the access to information legislation was about keeping government honest.
She also described as deeply unsettling the way in which the 2003 amendments were introduced, noting that they went “well beyond the recommendations of the high level group established to review the matter, which itself met in secret”.