THE Freedom of Information Bill which was passed by the Dail yesterday, would transform the way parliamentary questions are answered, according to the Minister of State at the Department of the Tanaiste, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald.
She said any temptation to withhold information would be foiled because it would be freely available to citizens when the Bill is enacted.
Ms Liz O'Donnell (Progressive Democrats spokeswoman on justice) said there was no effective sanction for the widespread dereliction of duty in providing information by bodies such as the "Blood Transfusion Service Board.
During a debate on the Freedom of Information Bill, she proposed an amendment that criminal sanctions should face public servants who deliberately withhold information for the purposes of a parliamentary question.
Answers to Dail questions were frequently misleading and often "deliberately framed to intentionally confuse, mislead and throw TDs off the scent", Ms O'Donnell said.
There had been a number of such occasions, she added, including the Judge Dominic Lynch case. One of the most notable situations was before the beef tribunal when the Department of Agriculture failed to give "information legitimately sought in the House by deputies" on malpractices in the beef processing industry.
The Minister said the amendment was a blanket" one whereby everybody would give all information "and that would include information that should be constitutionally protected".
Ms O'Donnell said she accepted her amendment was "clumsy" but she wanted to raise the possibility of such a clause. It was appropriate that in this brave new world" of freedom of information, there should be a total change in the procedure in which parliamentary [questions are answered, she said.
The Minister replied that experience in other jurisdictions had shown that once a Freedom of Information Act was introduced it "transforms the way parliamentary questions are answered". The information became available to citizens even if a civil servant was tempted to withhold it when answering a parliamentary question.
Earlier, Dr Jim McDaid (FF, Donegal North East) said a golden opportunity has been lost by not repealing the Official Secrets Act in the Freedom of Information Bill.
Mr Charles Flanagan (FG, Laois/Offaly) said he, too, supported the repeal of the Act, but that there was a technical difficulty with the amendment. The Act should be repealed and replaced with the appropriate criminal and civil sanctions in cases of wrongful disclosure of information, but there were no sanctions included in the legislation under debate.
Ms Fitzgerald rejected his amendment to repeal the Act in the Freedom of Information Bill debate. If the amendment was adopted and the Official Secrets Act repealed it would leave the State open at a time of conflict on part of the island, she said. She, said there was no one in the House more anxious than she to repeal the Official Secrets Act and she hoped that by the time the Information Bill came into place in a year that the Official Secrets Act would be repealed.
Dr McDaid said there would have been very little difficulty in getting the proper people together to put through the necessary amendments on civil and criminal sanctions.
