Since the Freedom of Information Act became law who has been using it and to what purpose?
The Freedom of Information Act gives citizens a right to know the information being held about them by government departments and state bodies, and how decisions are made.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed [INOU] has benefited from the Act. Welfare Rights Officer Ger Moore assists Social Welfare recipients with appeals, and it has greatly assisted him with his work,
Now it’s all in place, and everybody has the right for this information.
Mark Henry is a business consultant who works on behalf of companies navigating the maze of governmental bureaucracy. He cites one case regarding a request to access records on the National Conference Centre.
His client was refused access because although the Act applies to the government department, it does not to Bord Fáilte, who were responsible for making the decision. In addition, the government’s departmental representative,
Kept his files at home, and not in the Department itself, and therefore they were exempt.
There have been over 2,000 requests for information in the first six months of the Act’s operation. Half of these were from individuals seeking information on themselves regarding social welfare and taxation. Civil servants are the largest identifiable group using the Act, requesting information from their personnel files.
Catherine Neville from the Department of Social Affairs says that now the health boards and local authorities are on board, Freedom of Information requests will become more common, as has been the case in other countries,
It will reach a plateau I think and then just become part of life.
Training programmes have been provided for civil servants, so that they know how to respond to Freedom of Information requests. Mike Allen from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has concerns around new ways that decisions are being recorded, as it means that some documents will are therefore exempt under the Act,
That really needs to be monitored to make sure that it doesn’t create a new level of secrecy in which things are communicated verbally.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 13 January 1999. The reporter is Aileen O’Mara.
