Too many exemptions from FoI, says O’Reilly

THE Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has expressed concern at the large number of public bodies, including the gardaí, that continue to be excluded from Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation.

Ms O’Reilly said it was “quite extraordinary” that so many bodies still remained outside the scope of FoI legislation, despite last October’s announcement by Finance Minister Brian Cowen that another 109 public bodies would be subjected to the FoI Act.

“I am concerned that the planned extension of FoI to additional bodies may be intended as the ‘final round up’ in terms of such extensions,” said Ms O’Reilly.

However, many important State organisations are not subjected to FoI legislation. Along with the gardaí, they include the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, the Financial Regulator, the Adoption Board, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board and 33 Vocational Education Committees.

Ms O’Reilly said there was no reason why gardaí should not be subjected to such legislation as “the heavens hadn’t fallen” when police in Scotland came under an FoI act in that jurisdiction.

She said the public would not be entitled to information on criminal investigations but she believed that people were entitled to seek details about the administration of policing.

In the annual report of the Office of the Information Commissioner, launched yesterday, Ms O’Reilly said the current operation of FoI legislation was “not very positive”.

She said it still contained a large number of secrecy provisions which limited the amount of information which could be disclosed, while some Government departments had used separate legislation to exclude material from FoI scrutiny.

Ms O’Reilly also expressed disappointment that the Department of Finance had not reacted to requests for the introduction of a less stringent fee structure. Initial FoI requests cost €15 while an appeal to the relevant body costs €75. An appeal to the Information Commissioner costs €150.

The number of requests made to public bodies last year rose to 14,616 — a 16% increase on 2004.

However, Ms O’Reilly said the total represented a 21% decrease on the number of FoI requests made in 2003 when extra restrictions and fees were introduced.

She also blamed the charging of fees for the fact that the number of FoI requests from journalists was at “an all-time low” — just 6.5% of the total compared to 20% in 2001.

During 2005, 43% of all requests were granted in full with another 27% part-granted while just 15% were refused. Another 15% were either transferred, withdrawn or handled outside of FoI legislation.