‘Gardaí must be judged under FOI Act’

THE Gardaí should be brought under the scope of the Freedom of Information legislation, outgoing Information Commissioner Kevin Murphy said yesterday.

Mr Murphy said there should be no further delay in implementing this because the reasons that may have existed for excluding Gardaí from FOI requests no longer exist.

Presenting his final annual report for 2002, Mr Murphy said the latest amendments to the FOI Act had exempted information concerning security, defence, international relations and matters relating to Northern Ireland from any future requests.