The new Ombudsman who starts work today knows how the State can treat its citizens. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, spoke to her
If the State is to be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable members, then the Ombudsman's office is central to the formation of that judgment. Emily O'Reilly, a long-time and high-profile journalist, arrives in that office this morning for her first day as Ombudsman, and says this point will guide her time there.
She will lead the office which investigates complaints from citizens about their treatment by the public service. She will make recommendations about the future conduct of the public service in particular situations. Her office works to a mission statement committing itself to "helping to achieve a public service which is open, fair and accountable".
The State and its public administration is still capable of treating people in an appalling way, she says. "I have just read Rosemary Daly's book on the haemophilia scandal. Every politician and every public servant should read that book because to me it showed that when the system went bad, the Government and certain public servants decided they were in opposition to the people. They saw the victims as people who needed to be fended off.
"Dozens of people died horrible deaths, children died, and the State treated them as if they were nuisances just to be sidelined and got rid off and that happened at every stage. It culminated in the Lindsay report which I don't particularly want to comment on. But the Irish Haemophilia Society were terribly upset in that what they wanted were answers and they didn't get them."
Ms O'Reilly believes the Ombudsman's office should be put on a constitutional basis to copperfasten its position in Irish civic life.
"It means that nobody could abolish the office, although I don't think that's likely to happen. But it also means that it couldn't be strangled in terms of resources" by some government that found its efforts troublesome.
She would also like to widen the remit of the office to include non-commercial semi-state bodies such as Forfás, the IDA, the Blood Transfusion Service Board and others, as well as public hospitals. Such a change does not require legislation but could be done simply by order of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy. And yes, she will be asking Mr McCreevy to do this.
"There are some people who are brilliant at working the system and knowing their way around it", she says. "But there are also people with disabilities, or people who are vulnerable or on the margins of society, who may not be as clever about using the system or fighting for their rights, who may be in areas or situations where they do not know their rights as well as others." It is these people her office must represent, she says.
As Freedom of Information Commissioner she will be responsible for overseeing the relatively new and recently curtailed freedom of information regime.
She strongly opposed the Government's recent curtailment of the Act. Her predecessor Kevin Murphy was "dead right" to let his views be known on the issue.
She will now "keep a really good watch" to ensure the implementation of the Act is "maximalist". She says she will monitor closely the new powers given to secretaries general of Government departments to issue certificates withholding information from the public on the grounds that a "deliberative process" is under way.
"That will be an interesting one to watch. If there seems to be a particularly heavy volume of these certificates being issued in a particular department then the Commissioner can inquire - without looking at the actual details of cases - and it can be highlighted in a report that Department X has a huge number of those certificates."
She says that in some Government departments there is still a mindset hostile to the concept of freedom of information. "You hear grumbles about the cost of it and the hassle of it." But the point is, she says, it has to be operated. In 20 years, civil servants won't even notice it because it will be an integral part of the system.
She is also critical of a recent decision by the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, to post freedom of information requests on his Department's web site for all to see. This denies reporters the chance to use such requests as the basis for exclusive news stories.
"I haven't spoken to Dermot Ahern about this, and I'm sure we can take it as read that he has done it with the best will in the world and in the interests of openness and transparency", she says without any obvious hint of irony. "But it comes back to fair play. If a journalist has used his or her initiative and gone to seek a certain piece of information, then they should be entitled to use it."
In relation to her role as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, she adopts the same position concerning her role. "We are a community. Public servants are not privileged outsiders who can do what they feel like doing. They are there on our behalf. They are our public servants. It is our country and our money and we have a right to have a say in how it is run. We are not the enemy."