The exclusion of the Garda Síochána from the scope of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act is a concern and means Ireland is out of kilter with the rest of the developed world, according to the Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly.
In her Annual Report for 2006 published today, Ms O'Reilly expressed concern that a number of public sector bodies of "considerable significance" continue to be excluded from the scope of the Act, particularly the Garda.
"The Garda Ombudsman Commission opened for business earlier this month. I consider this a perfect time for An Garda Síochána, and of course its Ombudsman Commission, to come within the scope of the strong instrument of accountability that is the FOI Act," she said.
Ms O'Reilly added that police forces in the UK have been under the FOI since January 2005 without having "any negative effect on the ability of those forces to properly carry out their policing functions".
The commissioner also raised concerns that, among others, the Vocational Educational Committees, the Central Applications Office, the Adoption Board, the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, the Irish Red Cross, the Office of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, and the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority were not under the remit of the Act.
However, Ms O'Reilly also said that 10 years since its introduction the FOI is still being used "effectively to achieve openness and accountability in public service" despite a decline in overall usage.
The report found that overall FOI requests made to public bodies fell by 19 per cent, from 14,616 to 11,804, since 2005.
The decline was accounted for by an expected drop in the level of requests for personal information by former residents of industrial schools to the Department of Education and Science.
Other information requests actually increased in 2006 with the percentage level of requests from journalists rising from 6.5 per cent to 10per cent.
