Promise to renew FoI Act is very welcome

Yesterday’s confirmation in the Dáil from Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin that the Government will extend Freedom of Information legislation to all public bodies, including An Garda Síochána and the Central Bank, is very welcome.

This commitment, and that is all it remains, exemplifies the kind of re-engineering required in the relationship between citizens and our public institutions if today’s disenchantment with politics is not to lead to a dangerous vacuum. Basically, after years of being treated like idiots, and too often behaving like idiots, the rejuvenation of the act could represent one step towards restoring the kind of accountability central to all trusting and functioning partnerships.

This reiteration of a commitment to deliver on Fine Gael and Labour election promises reverses the contemptible and profoundly anti-democratic emasculation of that pioneering 1997 legislation — thank you Senator Brendan Ryan — in 2003 by then Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy and junior minister Tom Parlon.