Gardai 'will be forced to open their files'
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Thursday May 31 2007
THE GARDAI will have to sign up to accountability laws once major reforms of the force are in place, the Government signalled last night.
Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly has again demanded that police files be opened to Freedom of Information investigators in line with international standards.
In her annual report, she says that the continued exemption of An Garda Siochana from the right-to-know laws leaves Ireland out of kilter with the rest of the developed world.
The Government insisted it had parked plans to extend the reach of the Freedom of Information Act to include the force until the Garda Inspectorate and Garda Ombudsman Commission were both set up.
However, now that the programme of change is complete, the Department will reconsider making gardai subject to disclosure, said an official from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform said.
Officials in the Department of Finance, which has responsibility for the Act, believe the force will soon have to open its doors to the Information Commissioner.
While Ms O'Reilly remained concerned about the exclusion of other public bodies from the accountability laws, it was the garda exemption which drew most criticism from her.
"The Garda Ombudsman Commission opened for business earlier this month. I consider this a perfect time for An Garda Siochana, and of course its Ombudsman Commission, to come within the scope of the strong instrument of accountability that is the FOI Act," she said.
"Police forces across the UK have been under FOI since January 2005 and I am not aware of this inclusion having any negative effect on their ability to carry out their functions," she added.
The Department for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was also sharply rebuked in her report for reluctance to uncover records she requested. Ms O'Reilly's office accused the Department of a "lack of co-operation", forcing her office into issuing three statutory notices to get information. In one case, she said, it required intervention at the highest official level.
Ms O'Reilly also expressed concern that a number of public sector bodies - such as the Central Statistics Office, the Adoption Board and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board - were excluded from the scope of the Act.
And she highlighted instances in bodies under the FOI Act where decisions have been made but where no records were kept.
"There are a great deal of decisions that are made which do not have a paper trail," she said.
"I would see it as a form of maladministration which also affects the history books."
She criticised the decision to make changes to the FOI Act without consultation with her office, as was the case when the compulsion on the Health and Safety Authority to provide enforcement records was removed.
Ms O'Reilly also expressed disappointment that school inspection reports were excluded from the FOI Act.
The report indicates that the civil service takes a more restrictive approach to providing access, while the Department of Justice was singled out for a lack of co-operation.
The issue of upfront fees was again highlighted, "particularily the fee of €150 for applications for review which the statistics suggest is acting as a brake on accountability of public bodies through reducing the number of their decisions that are appealed," said the report.
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