Culture of secrecy - Obstacles to transparency

CORK City Council has rejected requests by this newspaper to release documentation relating to Diarmuid Gavin’s sky garden, which cost taxpayers €2.3 million.

Remarkably, the local authority has decided that it would be “contrary to the public interest” for the public to know how its money was spent. The spectacular garden was honoured with a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show but the structure is expected to remain in storage for at least the rest of the year while the city council tries to find a permanent home for it. So much of how we do our public business needs to be reformed. One of the areas most in need of urgent and uncompromising attention is the culture that allows public servants to secret away information that should automatically be in the public domain. The Irish Examiner will appeal the ruling but it is an indictment of our public service that it is such an obstacle to transparency