'Blanket approach' objections to information requests criticised by commissioner

Vivienne Clarke

The increased use of external legal advice by public bodies and the “blanket approach” of objecting to information being released under Freedom of Information or parliamentary questions has been criticised by the State's Information Commissioner.

Ger Deering told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the majority of such cases were dealt with very well by staff at the civil service or public service bodies, but a number of bodies are now relying on external legal advice.

He added that the main issue with this practice, aside from the cost, is that the culture was different between public service and private practice.

External legal advisers tend to apply blanket exemptions, he said. While there may be legitimate exemptions for information not being released, there appeared to be a policy of “let’s object to everything being released,” Mr Deering added.

He said if public bodies have a genuine reason why a particular piece of information should not be released, then they should make that argument in a targeted way and quote the relevant parts of legislation.

“This notion that the sky will fall down if all of our information is released just doesn't work.”

Mr Deering confirmed his office has issued Section 45 notices to a number of bodies, overriding the legal decision to close down access to information.

He added the notices were issued against Cork County Council, Children’s Health Ireland, the Defence Forces, the Department of Health and Trinity College Dublin.