FoI rejections - Affront to democracy

While the ECB may wish to gag the Government in relation to the liquidation of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the former Anglo Irish Bank, no self-respecting independent country should allow itself to be gagged in this way.

It is an affront to democracy.

“They are unfortunately a lot more secretive than we are,” a spokesman for the Department of Finance explained. As a result, the department is considering placing a blanket rejection on all future freedom of information requests in relation to the liquidation of IBRC in order to facilitate the ECB.

The ECB can be as secretive as it desires, but this should not apply to the Government, whose primary responsibility is to the Irish people. People are being told to pay up with no right to know for what they are actually paying.

This is not a question of keeping faith with the ECB; it is a question of our national sovereignty. We may have lost our economic sovereignty and may have to pay, but we should know what we are paying for, and the Government has a duty to ensure that we are informed. A faceless, unelected bureaucracy in Frankfurt cannot be allowed to run this country.

What the Department of Finance is suggesting is bad economics and even worse politics.