The Government is running scared of accountability and is trying to deny Irish people an insight into the thinking behind its decisions, writes Enda Kenny
Information is power. Power corrupts. Does information corrupt? Yesterday in the Dail the Taoiseach eventually came clean and admitted that his Government wanted to amend the Freedom of Information Act in a way which would deny the public access to Government papers older than five years. He produced no convincing arguments for the change. If the Government persists with this proposal, it will be an abuse of power.
What is Freedom of Information (FOI)? FOI is a legal right for every person to ask for and get access to records held by public bodies. The 1997 FOI Act recognised in law that public bodies should be directly accountable to the people they are there to serve.
It replaced the presumption of secrecy contained in the Official Secrets Act with a legal presumption that the public has a right to know. The thinking behind the legislation was that Government and Government bodies would become more accountable when information is out in the open.
The legislation recognised that there are certain exceptions to the automatic right to information. These covered information that could jeopardise security or law enforcement or breach legitimate personal privacy of individuals. A set of sensible and balanced exemptions covering these areas was included in the Act.
A further exemption was that draft and final memoranda and briefing documents for Government meetings could only be released after a five-year lapse. The practical effect of this exemption is that from April 21st, 2003 (five years after the Act came into force) Government memoranda will begin to become available to the public. These documents provide advice and guidance to Ministers on all major decisions.
This means, for example, that the memorandum which went to the Government on the 1999 Estimates will become available in October 2003. The memorandum that led to the announcement of the ill-fated Campus Ireland in Abbotstown will be available at the end of 2004. On a rolling basis over the next five years, we will be able to see the background papers and advice which went to the Government and which underpinned all major decisions taken by this Government.
We will be able to see what comments Ministers made about the introduction of the Special Savings Incentives Accounts Scheme. Did the Government consider the potential cost? We will be able to see what advice went to the Government about the deal negotiated by the Congregations in relation to the Redress Board.
The FOI Act was initially proposed in the joint Fianna Fail/Labour Programme for Government of 1992. The Rainbow Government of 1995-1997 led by Fine Gael brought the legislation to fruition. The then Fianna Fail Opposition did not oppose the Act in the House. In fact, in reviewing the debates, the Fianna Fail view at the time was that the legislation did not go far enough.
For example, Mr Jim McDaid TD said "this Bill is a minimalist and disappointing administrative fig leaf for real openness in Government". Mr Willie O'Dea TD described it as "a minimalist, carefully hedged-in Bill". On the likelihood of there being interest in Government memoranda which were five years old, Mr O'Dea offered the view that "there will not be too many requests for those documents". But at least one deputy did accurately predict future events when Ms Liz O'Donnell TD said: "I am not confident that this or future governments will be forthcoming with sensitive or explosive information when their skins are at stake."
Ms O'Donnell's words have now come to pass. The Government, of which she and her party are members, is now going to push through amendments to the five-year rule.
This will deny the Irish people the opportunity to have an informed view about the thinking behind many of the Government's decisions in recent years.
The Taoiseach has tried to hide this blatant piece of political chicanery behind an unpublished report of a high-level group of civil servants who have reviewed the operation of the Act. Of course, the Act needs to be reviewed and I have no doubt that the views of this group on the practical operation of the Act will be most welcome.
However, how can any group, no matter how eminent, review a provision which has not yet taken effect? The Taoiseach and the Tanaiste are trying to pre-empt the operation of the Act as it was passed by the Oireachtas unanimously in 1997.
They are doing this because the Government is running scared of accountability and transparency. In the Dail last week and again yesterday, the Taoiseach said he personally did not like the five-year rule. If that is the case, why, as leader of Fianna Fail in 1997, did his party not oppose the provision in the Act and put down amendments to change it?
This issue will come to the fore in the coming weeks. The Government will try to fudge and confuse the issue by linking this change with other technical changes in the Act. They must not be allowed to do this. This lurch to secrecy must be exposed for what it is. Fine Gael will fight any effort to change Section 19 of the FOI Act and, if the Government forces such a change through, Fine Gael will commit itself, when in Government, to restoring the position to that set out in the 1997 Act.
Enda Kenny TD is leader of Fine Gael