State may restrict personal data access

THE Government is considering restricting the time period within which people can access personal information held by State bodies.

According to an expert on the Freedom of Information Act, the current review of the law may result in time limits being introduced on applications for personal records.

University College Cork law lecturer Maeve McDonagh said last night that introducing time limits for people to seek health, education, tax or social welfare records would be a retrograde step. At the moment, personal files, stretching back indefinitely, can be accessed and this accounts for a large proportion of requests under the Act, she said.

“It is the element of the Act that is of most immediate impact on the ordinary person.

“It has been mentioned that public bodies find it heavy going to dig out old records. The concern is probably not having stuff and it’s a huge burden to have to go back,” Ms McDonagh said.

Instead, the Government should be seeking to tighten up records management regulations to ensure that all public bodies were actually keeping files on record, she said.

“In certain public bodies you can make a document one day and destroy it the next,” Ms McDonagh said.

The overall review of the Act was sparked by the impending date from which certain Cabinet papers can be disclosed.

Under the existing FOI Act regulations, Cabinet papers would become available after five years.

The provision would kick in from April this year, meaning proposals brought to the Cabinet by ministers could be revealed.

But the provisions do not allow for discussions at the Cabinet table to be released and specific sensitive material is also still excluded.

“The raw material of decisions would become available,” Ms McDonagh said.

Citing the example of inspection reports on nursing homes coming into the public domain, Ms McDonagh said the FOI Act is not just used by the media and warned that if it is restricted too much it would be incompatible with data protection directives.

“Any rowing back on the rights provided under the Act is worrying. Freedom of information has brought great benefits and to see it being restricted raises questions about the Government’s commitment to transparency,” she said.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said last week that an amendment to the Act will go before the Government this week and will be in the Dáil within a fortnight.

The proposed legislation is expected to come before the Cabinet today.

Last week, the Taoiseach said that releasing Cabinet papers after five years under the Freedom of Information Act will create major difficulties for issues such as the Northern Ireland peace process.