Garda must adopt Freedom of Information laws: Commissioner

The continued exemption of An Garda Síochána from accountability laws leaves Ireland out of kilter with the rest of the developed world, the Information Commissioner declared today.

In her latest annual report, Emily O’Reilly again demanded the force follow in the footsteps of their international counterparts by opening its files to Freedom of Information investigators.

While she remained concerned about the exclusion of other public bodies from the right-to-know laws it was the garda exemption which drew most criticism.

“The Garda Ombudsman Commission opened for business earlier this month. I consider this a perfect time for An Garda Síochána, and of course its Ombudsman Commission, to come within the scope of the strong instrument of accountability that is the FOI Act,” she said.

“Police forces across the UK have been under FOI since January 2005 and I am not aware of this inclusion having any negative effect on the ability of those forces to properly carry out their policing functions.”

The Department for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was also sharply rebuked in the report for its apparent reluctance to uncover records requested by the Information Commissioner during investigations.

Ms O’Reilly’s office accused the Department of a “lack of co-operation” forcing it into issuing three statutory notices to get the information it needed.

In one case she said it required intervention at the highest official level.

Ten years on from the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act, the Information Commissioner insisted up-front fees continued to have a negative impact acting as a brake on accountability.

She urged top priority be given to reviewing the cost of applying for information bringing charges for internal reviews of decisions and appeals, in particular, into line with other countries.

The Information Commissioner also revealed statistics on the release of information showed the Civil Service was more restrictive in handing over records than other public bodies covered by the legislation.

She stressed the laws are still being used effectively to achieve openness and accountability in public service despite a decline in overall usage.

FOI requests to public bodies dropped by 19% since 2005, from 14,616 to 11,804 requests last year, but this was attributed to an expected drop in requests by former residents of industrial schools to the Department of Education and Science.