A Dublin school principal has won his appeal against a decision of the Information Commissioner to release certain school inspectors' reports to the Irish Times.
In the first appeal under the Freedom of Information Act to come before the Supreme Court, a panel of judges declared that release of the reports could lead to comparisons being drawn between different schools.
The Supreme Court today granted the appeal by Mr Barney Sheedy , principal of Scoil Choilm, Crumlin, against the High Court's refusal to overturn the Commissioner's decision to release the reports.
The High Court had put a stay on publication of the reports pending the outcome of the appeal.
In the majority Supreme Court judgment, Mr Justice Kearns, with whom Ms Justice Denham agreed, allowed the appeal on one of three grounds advanced by Mr Sheedy .
The successful ground of appeal related to Section 53 of the Education Act 1998 which provides that the Minister for Education "notwithstanding any other enactment, may refuse access to any information which would enable the compilation of information (that is not otherwise available to the general public) in relation to the comparative performance of schools in respect of the academic achievements of students.."
The Supreme Court found the use of the clause "nothwithstanding any other enactment" was clear and unambiguous and meant Section 53 overrode or "trumped" any provision of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 1997.
Mr Justice Kearns remarked the Section may well have been inserted with the unspoken intention of "batting off" the application of the FOI Act to the historically contentious issue of making public certain findings regarding the comparative performance of schools.
In his dissenting judgment, Mr Justice Fennelly said he did not believe the Oireachtas could have intended that Section 53 in some manner "disapplied" the provisions of the FOI Act. He said the FOI Act constituted a "legislative development of major importance" by which the Oireachtas took a considered and deliberate step which "dramatically alters the administrative assumptions and culture of centuries".
The judge said the Act "replaces the culture of secrecy with one of openness", was "designed to open up the workings of government and administration to scrutiny" and not simply to satisfy the appetite of the media for stories. It was intended to have universal application, meaning it extended to every class or record held by any public body listed in the First Schedules to the Act, he added.
The legal proceedings arose after the Irish Timesapplied 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 1998 and sections of the FOI Act 1997.
The refusal under the 1997 Act was on grounds that school staff provided information in confidence and that disclosure could prejudice the effectiveness of future inspections. The Department's refusal was appealed to the Information Commissioner and in March 2003, the Commissioner 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, including Scoil Choilm.
Mr Sheedy's proceedings challenging that decision were against the Information Commissioner, with the Minister for Education and Science and the Irish Times Ltd as notice parties.
Mr Sheedy claimed the release of the reports could lead to the compilation of "league tables" of schools and would have a "chilling" effect on teachers' interaction with school inspectors when the inspectors were preparing reports.