As April approaches there is mounting consternation in the civil service. The Freedom of Information Act comes into force then, but so unused are some of our Government departments to giving out any information at all, that they are dreading the day. The Act means the public has a right to ask certain questions and be told the answers by civil servants and ministers. They will no longer get away with saying "I'm not telling you".
The Department of Justice has a long-cherished lead in this field of official secrecy. Indeed, it is said that in the Stephen's Green offices everything is a secret and to reveal anything would collapse the State. But things are about to change.
The Foreign Affairs department is considered the most liberal because its experience of dealing with foreign powers, especially during our EU Presidency, introduced staff there to openness. They, like their counterparts in Finance, have been known to refer an inquirer to the relevant official.
Government departments know what is coming and they are preparing themselves. Special officers are training civil servants for the unknown exercise of having to answer questions from the public. They are being told what they can release, how to do it and, it is presumed, how to hide what they don't want to let out.
Panic in Government departments over the Freedom of Information Act is equalled only by the mounting worries among politicians over the terms of the Ethics Act, which even the specially appointed Public Office Commission found impossible to interpret satisfactorily and which all parties now agree needs amending to create spending equity among election candidates. Both bills were sponsored during the last government by Labour junior minister Eithne FitzGerald.