Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton TD, has welcomed today’s statement from the Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, that Freedom of Information charges should be reduced or abolished. However Deputy Burton also said that the Labour Party had recently proposed scrapping all fees for queries under the FOI Act.

“Emily O’Reilly’s comments effectively endorse the long-held Labour Party position that FOI should be restored to its original form when introduced by the Rainbow Government in 1997.

“That means no fees for queries from members of the public and far fewer restrictions on the public’s access to this information than those introduced by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats four years ago.

“The Freedom of Information legislation enacted by the Rainbow government was grounded in the belief that public bodies must be accountable to the ordinary public they are there to serve and that accountability requires openness.

“Accordingly we sought to reverse the restrictions introduced by the Government in a Private Members Bill we published last November.

“Freedom of information, everywhere it has been introduced, has brought about more open government and better administration of public services. Doing business in the open is the best guarantee of efficiency.

“The Information Commissioner quite rightly points out today that the fee structure introduced by Fianna Fail and the PDs ranging from €15-€150 is prohibitive, and does not exist in any other country with FOI legislation similar to Ireland’s.

“Since the gutting of the FOI legislation there was a marked decline in the number of queries made by members of the public. The Labour Party is determined to restore this important piece of legislation to ensure the highest levels of transparency and accountability in public life.”

Charges by levied by Govt Departments on members of the public looking for information under the Freedom of Information Act should be scrapped. This week we discovered from a series of PQs that just €20,000 has been raised by the Government Departments this year, money that would barely pay for one part-time clerical worker!

This gives lie to the claim that the charges were introduced to cover the costs of running the FOI scheme. Clearly they were introduced by Fianna Fail to discourage members of the public from asking awkward questions.

“The charges have resulted in a dramatic decline in the numbers of requests for information being made to departments and should be scrapped immediately.

“The Freedom of Information Act was introduced by the Rainbow Government to ensure openness and to guarantee access to information to which the public is entitled. Fianna Fail was always unhappy with this approach and wasted little time in introducing legislation to undermine the original Act.

“Despite having no mandate to do so, and never having raised the matter in either party’s election manifesto, the Government introduced amending legislation in 2003 which excluded whole areas of information to which the public had been entitled under the original Act. They then followed this up with massive increases in charges for applications under the Act. The whole impact of this was to seriously undermine the value of the original legislation.

“The assault on the principle of freedom of information is one of the worst legacies of a decade of Fianna Fail/PD government. The Labour Party in government is committed to ensuring a return to the spirit of the original Act and the highest possible standards in regard to freedom of information.”

Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton, has said the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, is totally justified in expressing her frustration and disappointment that so many public bodies are not covered by freedom of Information legislation. Deputy Burton said this is a direct consequence of Fianna Fail’s decision to gut the original FOI legislation.

“Delivering her 2005 report Emily O’Reilly has, yet again, voiced her frustration and bewilderment at the number of significant bodies that remain outside the remit of FOI. The Gardai, the Refugee Applications Commissioner, and the Central bank are but three of the major institutions not covered.

“While the Minister for Finance has added a few more bodies to the FOI list in recent times, these have been piecemeal and cosmetic changes that have in no way returned the legislation to the status it held when first introduced.

“Emily O’Reilly’s comments are an example of how even those who work with and handle FOI requests recognize the need for greater numbers of agencies to be covered by the legislation.

“The Freedom of Information Act was introduced by the Rainbow Government to ensure openness and to guarantee access to information to which the public is entitled. Fianna Fail was always unhappy with this approach and wasted little time in introducing legislation to undermine the original Act.

“The Labour Party in government is committed to ensuring a return the highest possible standards in regard to access to official information and wishes to see the return of the original legislation as initially introduced.”

At a meeting of the Joint Finance Committee tomorrow, Deputy Joan Burton will call for the restoration of the Freedom of Information Act to what it was before it was filleted by the present Government.

The Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly will present a report to the Committee which shows that the number of bodies being excluded from the remit of the Act is being extended by stealth and without any consultation with the Information Commissioner. It is an indication of the contempt the government holds for the whole process, that the Commissioner should have learned from a member of the public, rather than the government, of the decision to exclude Health and Safety Authority investigations from the remit of the Act.

Deputy Burton said “This provides further evidence of the government’s determination to limit the flow of information to the public. The assault on the principle of freedom of information is one of the worst legacies of nine years of Fianna Fail/PD government. The Labour Party in government is committed to ensuring a return to the spirit of the original Act and the highest possible standards in regard to freedom of information.”

The Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance, Deputy Joan Burton, has welcomed the review of the changes to the Freedom of Information Act, published today by the Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, and has called on the government to act immediately on the Commissioner’s recommendation of a review of the scale and structure of the charges introduced last year.

The figures published today in the Review and in the annual report showing a huge decrease in the number of applications are confirmed by statistics I received in reply to parliamentary questions which also showed a massive reduction in applications under the Act over the past twelve months.

The only matter on which I would disagree with Ms. O’Reilly is her conclusion that the decline in the use of the Act had gone far beyond what the government had intended. I believe that the result is exactly what Fianna Fail and the PDs intended and the amendments to the Act and the massive increase in charges was a calculated and deliberate attempt to undermine the principle of the widest possible access to public information, introduced by the Rainbow government.

Fianna Fail was never comfortable with the whole principle of freedom of information and were unhappy that the media in particular used the Act in full to expose incidences of gross incompetence and mismanagement by the Fianna Fai//PD government. They took the earliest possible opportunity to gut the original Act.

The Labour Party will press for the early implementation of the recommendations made by Ms. O’Reilly. The Labour Party in government is committed to ensuring a return to the highest possible standards in regard to public access to information.

New figures I have obtained in reply to Parliamentary Questions indicate a very significant reduction in the number of applications to government departments under the Freedom of Information Act in the first quarter of this year. These figures suggest that the changes to the legislation introduced by the government and the increased fees imposed by the government have had the effect that Fianna Fail and the PDs hoped of greatly reducing the flow of information to the public under the FOI Act.

The Act restricting the rights of the public to information under the FOI process was completed by the Dail in April of 2003, so figures for the first quarter of this year provide the first real opportunity to compare the impact of the changes over an extended period. I have received replies from 13 different Departments which show that while the received a total of 1490 applications in the first three months of 2003, the similar figure for this year was just 687, or 46% of the previous year’s figure.

Applications fell in respect of every single Department and in some cases the fall was even more significant than the overall picture. For instance in the Department of the Enviroment this year’s figure was just 29% of the 2003 total, while in Transport it was just 14% and in the Taoiseach’s Department only 13%.

The figures I received also showed a massive reduction in the number of cases where decisions made by a Department are processed to internal appeal. This would again appear to be a direct consequence of the increased fees.

Indeed shortly after her appointment last year, the Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly warned that the new charges would act as a financial disincentive to the use of the Act and to appeals against Departmental decisions.

The Freedom of Information Act was introduced by the Rainbow Government to ensure greater openness and to guarantee access to information to which the public is entitled. Fianna Fail was always unhappy with this approach and wasted little time in introducing legislation designed to undermine the original Act.

The Labour Party in government is committed to ensuring a return the highest possible standards in regard to access to official information.

Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance, Deputy Joan Burton, has called for the “immediate withdrawal of FOI charges” set to be introduced in little under a week, following comments by the Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly that the charges will act as a “financial disincentive” to those appealing FOI decisions.

Deputy Burton commented, “It is virtually unprecedented for a public official of the status of Information Commissioner to admit that such a government decision is not in the public interest. Emily O’Reilly has conceded that the €150 fee to appeal a decision is not standard practice in overseas FOI legislation.

“Moreover, it is absolutely ridiculous that this fee will go to the government department from whom the information is requested, rather than to the office of the Information Commissioner.

“This lays bare the fact that the exorbitant charges are not only an attempt to withhold information, but are also a further taxation on the public.

“Emily O’Reilly’s comments prove that there was absolutely no consultation between the government and other stakeholders in the FOI process before these charges were set.

“She has admitted that the government is placing financial obstacles in the way of the public, and I am calling on Charlie McCreevy to abolish these charges immediately and reinstate full and open access to public information.”