Bid to have State files released in 15 years

A proposed new law radically reducing the time the public must wait to view potentially sensitive Government records was published today.

State files are transferred to the National Archive and released for general viewing only after 30 years but the Labour Party wants to half that period to encourage openness.

Mary Upton, Labour’s Arts spokeswoman, said the party’s bill would help root out a culture of secrecy.

“Public servants, and public representatives work for, and on behalf of the people of Ireland, and their work should be fully accessible to the public,” Ms Upton said.

“For decades, this country has been poorly served by a culture of secrecy at all levels of officialdom, and this bill will go some way to addressing the transparency deficit.”

The party said the bill would come into force five years after being passed.

Every year thousands of documents are transferred from Government departments and the courts to the National Archives where they are placed on public view.

Although the records are predominantly paper files, the material also includes bound volumes, photographs, films, sound recordings, maps, plans and drawings.

However, some Government documents remain classified and unavailable to the public.

In the latest documents from 1978 it was revealed Irish intelligence services kept reports of Joe Dolan’s tour of Russia in a classified file marked Communist Activities, and the Government considered sinking the Asgard a year after buying it.