Gardaí to remain outside remit of FoI act

GARDAÍ and immigration officials are unlikely to be subject to Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation any time soon — despite calls from civil rights campaigners to expand the law to bring them under its remit.

Information commissioner Emily O’Reilly said yesterday there was “no justification” for allowing bodies with so much public power to escape public scrutiny and she called for a thorough review of the legislation and its purpose.

“There is a particular urgency about the need to have public agencies in the areas of policing, asylum and immigration made amenable to the FoI act,” she told a conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the act.

“The activities of these agencies have a critical impact on the fundamental rights and life chances of so many individuals yet they remain in many respects beyond scrutiny.”

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, however, indicated there was little enthusiasm in government for expanding the law.

Mr Lenihan finalised the new Immigration, Residency and Protection Bill before he left the Department of Justice last week and it specifically exempts the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal from FoI requirements.

“Various representations have been made by Emily O’Reilly; some of them we have accepted and some of them we have not. I am always willing to examine any submissions but with some organisations like the Garda Síochána and defence forces, there are sensitive security issues that arise,” he said.

Ms O’Reilly was backed by Donncha O’Connell, dean of law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, who called for the setting up of an information superstructure, independent of the Government and protected by the constitution, which would ensure all public bodies were open to public inspection.

In the case of asylum and immigration matters, a simple efficiency argument applied as the courts were bogged down with judicial review cases taken by applicants trying to understand the reasons behind decisions in their case. “If there was more FoI, there would be less judicial review,” he said.

Ireland is virtually alone in the 70 countries worldwide that have FoI legislation in exempting the national police force from the law.

Ms O’Reilly said the revelations of the Morris tribunal and recent controversies and allegations of bias around the workings of the refugee appeals tribunal, provided compelling reason for including such bodies in FoI law.

“I have suggested that we need an honest debate about the future of FoI in Ireland. Honesty, therefore, requires that I ask whether it is the case that the Department of Justice is blocking the opening up of policing and immigration matters to the scrutiny of FoI and if this is the case, then perhaps we might be told why.”

The Irish Refugee Council welcomed Ms O’Reilly’s comments. “The secrecy and lack of information that surrounds the whole asylum process has a profound effect on individual’s human rights,” it said.