Civil servants' submission: Some of the State's most senior officials yesterday rejected claims that they wanted to protect the Government and Civil Service from public scrutiny in a report behind many of the new restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act.
Despite repeated criticism of plans to curtail the regime, the group of secretaries general at five Government departments said they were "fully committed" to the right of access to information.
The group told an Oireachtas committee that its report on the Act had been compiled as an input into the Government's review.
It said it was unable to comment on the merits of the Government's plans, which themselves will significantly increase the responsibilities of secretaries general. Members of the group also declined to comment on the source of restrictions to the Act which were not contained in its report to the Government.
The secretary general of public service management development in the Department of Finance, Mr Eddie Sullivan, would state only that his Department had been charged with implementing a "broad Government decision".
The group had called for an increase on the protection to Cabinet records to 10 years from five and sought an exemption on communications between ministers, but other restrictions, such as the exemption on records linked to tribunals and responses to parliamentary questions, were not contained in its report.
Another Government proposal not in the officials' report was a new requirement on secretaries general to sign a waiver which would exempt from release documents produced "primarily" for government.
The group said yesterday that the question of consultations with the information commissioner, Mr Kevin Murphy, did not arise because the Government had not requested such a consultation.
The group was chaired by the secretary to the Government, Mr Dermot McCarthy, who said in his submission that officials, ministers and Oireachtas members "have had the experience of seeing records published which have caused some degree of discomfort and even embarrassment".
Mr McCarthy added: "We have learned to live with this and we recognise personal discomfort is not relevant in any consideration of the Freedom of Information framework." He said the group had formed its advice to the Government on the basis that it was "ultimately in the public interest to have a well-functioning Cabinet process, which allows ministers the freedom to carry out their constitutional function as members of the government".
In a lengthy appearance before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service, the group rejected criticism from Opposition TDs and senators about the lack of consultation.
The group had no evidence that members of the Government had changed written observations on Cabinet documents. But it believed that this might change if Government memorandums from April 1998 started "hitting the streets" next month when the five-year period of protection in the original legislation lapsed.
The secretary general of the Department of Transport, Ms Julie O'Neill, said there was an element of "crystal ball-gazing" in relation to the likely response of Government members to the possibility that Cabinet papers would be released soon.
The secretary general at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Paul Haran, said Ministers needed space to formulate policy in an open and frank fashion.
