The Information Commissioner has initiated a review of the Government's restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act. However, in his first comments since the Government disclosed its plans last Friday, Mr Kevin Murphy avoided stating whether he favoured the changes.
As Opposition parties prepared to attack the Government in the Dáil today over the plans, Mr Murphy said he would provide a commentary within the next week describing how he had applied the provisions.
The Government's failure to consult interested parties is expected to be criticised in the Dáil and the Seanad today, as the second stage debate begins.
The Labour Party leader last night criticised the PDs for their support of the changes. Mr Rabbitte said: "It is a sad commentary on the self-appointed watchdogs of the PDs that they are prepared to collude in shutting out the public and the media."
Labour has said it will publish an alternative Bill today, stating that the Government planned effectively to revoke key provisions in the original Act. It also wants to establish a statutory requirement on the Government to consult interested parties. Labour also wants Mr Murphy's office to carry out a public consultation programme on any changes required in the Act and report to the Committee of Finance and Public Service. It also wants to extend by 12 months the period during which the Act can be reviewed.
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, has written to the Oireachtas Joint Committee of Finance and Public Service calling for a hearing involving the senior officials whose report was behind changes in the Act.
"We are not happy that such radical changes in our law should be made purely on the basis of consultation between a number of senior public servants and their respective ministers," Mr Bruton said. "We believe that it is necessary to undertake a wider consultation process before any such legislation would be put to the Oireachtas for debate."
Mr Murphy said in a statement it would be "inappropriate" to comment on the changes. A spokesman said he was not available to talk to journalists.
"It is important that the Office of the Information Commissioner as well as the Office of the Ombudsman should continue to operate in a politically impartial way, since independence and impartiality go hand in hand," Mr Murphy's statement said.
"The commentary will describe how I have applied those provisions of the Act, which it is now proposed to amend, to individual cases which have come before me over the last five years. I hope that it will provide useful factual information to assist public and parliamentary debate."
Yesterday the National Union of Journalists called on the Government to withdraw the amendments, saying its failure to consult interested parties undermined the credibility of the social partnership process. The Irish secretary of the NUJ, Mr Séamus Dooley, asked: "How can we believe commitments about social and economic reforms when the rights of citizens are trampled upon in such an arrogant fashion?"
