A Dublin school principal yesterday lost a High Court bid to overturn a decision of the Information Commissioner to release certain school inspectors' reports to The Irish Times.
Mr Barney Sheedy, principal of Scoil Choilm, Crumlin, Dublin, had claimed the release of such reports could lead to the compilation of "league tables" of schools and would have a "chilling" impact on teachers' interaction with school inspectors.
While dismissing Mr Sheedy's case yesterday, Mr Justice Gilligan said he would put a stay on publication of the inspector's report on Scoil Choilm pending any appeal of his decision to the Supreme Court. He also put a stay on an order awarding costs to the commissioner against Mr Sheedy.
When the case was at hearing in March, Mr Justice Gilligan was told that the Minister for Education, who had initially refused access to the reports, now accepted the decision of the Information Commissioner (IC) to release them with certain information erased.
The legal proceedings arose after The Irish Times applied to the Department of Education for access to reports of inspections of a number of Dublin primary schools. The Department refused access under Section 53 of the Education Act 1988 and sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1997.
Section 53 provides that access may be refused to any information in relation to the academic achievements of students enrolled in a school.
The Department also refused access, under provisions of the FoI Act, on grounds that school staff provided information in confidence to the inspectors, and disclosure could prejudice the effectiveness of future inspections.
The Department's refusal was appealed to the IC by The Irish Times. In March 2003, the IC allowed the appeal, and directed that the newspaper could have access, with the exception of references to the principal and staff, to the inspectors' reports on five schools. Mr Sheedy's proceedings challenging that decision were against the IC, with the Minister for Education and Science and the Irish Times Ltd as notice parties.
An inspection of Scoil Choilm was carried out in March 2001. Mr Sheedy appealed on a point of law against the IC's decision granting access to a redacted version of the report in respect of that school. In his reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Gilligan found Mr Sheedy had failed to show that the IC had erred in law in concluding that the report was not exempt from disclosure.
The judge said he was satisfied that the Oireachtas, having put in place a system in relation to the freedom of information, should be slow to interfere to set aside any decision taken within the system where there were facts available to support that decision. It was clear the intention of the FoI Act was to enable members of the public to obtain access "to the greatest extent possible consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy" to information in the possession of public bodies.
To be exempt from disclosure, as provided for under Section 53 of the FoI Act, the relevant information would have to enable the compilation of information about the comparative performance of schools in respect of the academic achievement of students enrolled, the judge said.
The IC had stated he had carefully examined the contents of the school reports before the court, and had concluded the reports did not contain any specific references to the academic achievements of students in each school. There were no rankings or marks given for the school of the students involved.
The IC stated he was not aware of, and the Department had not pointed to, any criteria used for assessing the schools under the relevant headings.
Mr Justice Gilligan said he had to bear in mind that when the IC was referring to the school reports, he was referring specifically to the five school reports which comprised the subject matter before him. The only issue before the court was the report of Scoil Choilm.
The IC had acknowledged that an analysis of the reports in question could give rise to comparisons being drawn between overall views of the schools. The IC took the view, however, that such comparisons would be highly subjective, and did not believe any empirical league table of schools, based on overall impressions, could be compiled.