Govt: Gardaí will be bound by Freedom of Information Act

The Gardaí will have to sign up to accountability laws once major reforms of the force are bedded down, the Government signalled tonight.

Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has again demanded police files be opened to Freedom of Information investigators in line with international standards.

In her annual report, she said the continued exemption of An Garda Siochana from the right-to-know laws leaves Ireland out of kilter with the rest of the developed world.

The Government insisted it had parked plans to extend the reach of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act over the force until the Garda Inspectorate and Garda Ombudsman Commission were both set up.

“However, now that the programme of change is substantially complete the Department will review the matter of considering An Garda Siochana as a body for the purposes of the FOI Act later this year,” said an official from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Officials in the Department of Finance, which has responsibility for the FOI Act, believe the force will soon have to open its doors to the Information Commissioner.

“There’s a lot of things happening with the Gardaí at the moment. FOI is a natural follower of those things. We still need time for those things to be bedded down,” one said.

While Ms O’Reilly remained concerned about the exclusion of other public bodies from the accountability 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 Siochana, 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 her 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 FOI 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.

But the Department of Finance insisted the charges were not unreasonable and didn’t discourage people from making requests.

“The Minister [Brian Cowan] has made it clear that there are no plans to make further changes,” a spokesman said.

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.

Ms O’Reilly also called for the Vocational Educational Committees, the Central Applications Office, the Adoption Board, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, the Irish Red Cross, the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, and the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority to be brought under the FOI Act.