The Coalition Government appears determined to clamp down on the public's right to know how it conducts its business. The Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, published yesterday by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, rolls back existing rights and amounts to a denial of the public's entitlement to get at the truth. It bears the stamp of a civil service mentality which traditionally resisted any questioning of its behaviour.
In a modern democracy, that is a dangerous development. It will heighten any sense of exclusion amongst citizens and fuel suspicion of the government process. The legislation seeks to create particular classes of information which would automatically be withheld from the media, from opposition political parties or from concerned organisations and individuals. Parliamentary briefing notes for Ministers, including those concerning Dáil questions, along with documents relating to international affairs and tribunals of inquiry, will be restricted. Material will also be withheld where the Secretary-General of a Department decides the "deliberative process" surrounding an issue is on-going. All communications between Ministers, including Cabinet memorandums and other records will be withheld for ten years, rather than five, as provided for in existing legislation.
One of the most objectionable aspects of the Bill is that the review on which it was based and the Government's deliberations took place in secret. The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Mr Kevin Murphy, who has statutory responsibility for ensuring the terms of the Freedom of Information Act are implemented, was not approached by the review group, composed of five Secretary-Generals. His subsequent request for consultation, before legislation was drafted, was disregarded. The opposition parties in the Dáil were not asked for their views. And commercial media interests, along with the National Union of Journalists, were ignored.
This back-stairs exercise is an assault on the spirit of openness and transparency which underpinned the original legislation. It will curtail the role of the statutorily-independent Information Commissioner, while granting extraordinary powers to senior civil servants. In future, no appeal will be possible once a Secretary-General has certified that the information sought is part of an on-going, deliberative process. Departments will no longer have to justify withholding information to Mr Murphy on the grounds that harm would be caused to the public interest.
We need a strong and effective Freedom of Information Act. The late Mr Justice Liam Hamilton famously remarked that if Ministers had answered questions fully in the Dáil there would not have been a need for a Beef Tribunal. If enacted, this Bill could help to recreate the conditions that gave us that tribunal. It should be withdrawn.