Significant restrictions to the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) - including curbs on the publication of correspondence between Ministers - will be announced today by the Government.
The Department of Finance, according to a Government spokeswoman, accepted all of the recommendations of five top civil servants who reported to the Department of the Taoiseach before Christmas.
Crucially, requests to see correspondence between Ministers will be refused in future if Departments rule that publication would affect "the free exchange of views between Ministers".
The new rule would, for example, have prevented publication last year of Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy's robust complaints to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, about the latter's spending controls.
In their report, the high level working group advised that such letters should be exempt because they are attempts to express "particular departmental positions", or "to achieve consensus" at the Cabinet table.
In future, all FOI applications will be subject to a flat fee of €20, along with any other charges needed to pay for photocopying and for the time needed to compile the reply.
In 1998, it was decided that the FOI Act would be extended next April to allow for the release of Cabinet papers from April 1998, as soon as they were more than five years old. Strongly opposed by Ministers, this section of the legislation is to be scrapped. Instead, greater access will be allowed to such papers once they are more than 10 years old.
Early disclosure would, according to the five secretaries general from the Departments of the Taoiseach; Foreign Affairs; Finance; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and Transport, stop "free expression at Cabinet" and make it more difficult to reconcile differences among Ministers who would, together with officials, be reluctant to put views in writing.
Today's legislation will be published at 10 a.m. by the Department of Finance, although neither Mr McCreevy, nor Minister of State Mr Parlon are scheduled to be available to defend the changes.
During the drafting, the Government failed to discuss its plans with the Information Commissioner, Mr Kevin Murphy, who is the court of final appeal for FOI appeals.
In addition, the Department of Finance did not hold talks with the National Union of Journalists, or with the three consumer representative groups appointed by itself.
A €20 charge would prevent spurious FOI applications and "trawling requests", said the working group, although the Act already allows for the refusal of "vexatious applications".
Labour TD Ms Joan Burton said it was "totally unacceptable" that the FOI would be restricted on the basis of recommendations from officials "who opposed the FOI in the first place".
"No doubt the Government will try to pretend that this report represents some kind of independent examination of the Act, when in fact it is nothing of the kind.
"Freedom of Information is central to our modern concept of a functioning democracy. Charging a fee for freedom of information flies in the face of that concept and is outrageous," she said.
"These changes are all about strengthening the veil of secrecy around Ministers and civil servants. We are no longer in the era of Ray Burke and Charlie Haughey."
