Privacy and accountability - Who would privacy laws serve best?

TWO decades ago billionaire New York hotel operator Leona Helmsley coined a phrase that has outlived her.

During trials for tax dodging and other crimes a housekeeper testified she had heard Helmsley say: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes ...”

An Irish variation of that stinging indictment might be “we don’t do accountability. Only the little people are accountable.”

The establishment of a banking inquiry that will do most of its work behind closed doors is an affront to anyone who believes honesty and accountability are central to the proper conduct of public affairs.

No matter how charmingly Government sources, even the tragically out-foxed Greens, might suggest otherwise, it is another example of the inside-track privilege that has contaminated this society. It is another symptom of the cancer that has destroyed the trustessential to effective, participatory democracy.

No other country has held such inquiries in camera because they know they would not get away with it. Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s initial and visceral refusal to hold any inquiry was at least honest in its directness but entirely out of step with what is needed.

Another understandable indication of this Government’s discomfort with unwelcome publicity came last week when Arts Minister Martin Cullen said he felt like he was “being raped” by the media over false allegations that he had an affair with Waterford businesswoman Monica Leech.

The claims were completely untrue and a €1.8 million libel award was made to Ms Leech. Ms Leech and Mr Cullen were terribly wronged and she sought recompense which our courts granted.

That is how our system works.

It does not in anyway diminish or underestimate the hurt done to these two innocent people and their families to say they were victims of unusual ineptitude rather than malice.

They were the victims of untrue but terribly hurtful allegations, of the type that are, despite all the furore, almost alien to our media and public life. They were exceptional. That is because our libel laws work and our media are extremely responsible when it comes to challenging a person’s reputation or good name. Simply put, they cannot afford to get it wrong.

In his speech last week Mr Cullen promised that “if I could in my time in politics see a privacy bill brought in, I will do so.” This declaration seems more rooted in vindictiveness than a desire to serve the public interest.

Though the idea of “privacy legislation” sounds appealing, especially to those who might have something to hide, it would be yet another barrier to accountability.

Privacy legislation and a culture of accountability are, after all, two sides to the same coin.

Who would this legislation serve? Would it serve the truth or facilitate the corrupt and criminal? We all know the answers to those questions.

Privacy laws would be another shield for the people suspected of wrongdoing or criminality. They would be used to block the little investigative journalism Irish media interests can still afford to undertake and hide the crimes such scrutiny reveals.

They would add insult to the injury caused by the emasculation of the Freedom of Information Act.

As we see more cleary every day this country is beginning to unravel at the seams. Just today we report on how children suffering from arthritis cannot be helped because of funding and staff problems; we report that vital garda units do not have senior officers because of a recruitment ban. We report too the Children’s Rights Alliance has found the Government’s performance regarding its delivery on its commitment to children is “barely acceptable” – and, remember, that’s just today’s paper.

We all face a wave of public sector industrial action that will cause further polarisation at a time when unity was never so badly needed.

It is more than ironic that in a week when former British prime minister Tony Blair will have to, in public, answer questions about the Iraq war, that we still do not have effective or ready-made mechanisms to hold our elected representatives, or others, suspected of breaching the faith office confers on them, to account.

We cannot even get answers, much less impose the kind of sanction faced by Leona Helmsley who was sentenced to 16 years in jail, though she only served 19 months.

How careless of her not to have been born in Ireland.