Confronting corruption - Extend FoI Act remit

For the second time, British Prime Minister David Cameron has had to acknowledge that official reports on a tragedy were based on police or security force dishonesty.

He had apologised because police lied to protect themselves after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. He had made a similarly abject admission about British Army murders and cover-ups in Derry in 1972.

Mr Cameron has had to watch too as Leveson exposed entirely inappropriate activities by former aides, friends, as well as reprehensible police behaviour.

It’s been over a decade since the Morris report pointed to corruption amongst our own police so we cannot pretend the issues raised in Britain are of no consequence here. Rather they must add momentum to efforts to extend the remit of the Freedom of Information Act, shamelessly emasculated by Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevy, to include the gardaí and the security forces.