History of FOI

FOI in Ireland

Before the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, release of official information was governed by section 4 of the Official Secrets Act, 1963, which prohibits release of all official information unless explicitly permitted:

(1) A person shall not communicate any official information to any other person unless  he is duly authorised to do so or does so in the course of and in accordance with his duties as the holder of a public office or when it is his duty in the interest of the State to communicate it.

(2) A person to whom subsection (1) applies shall take reasonable care to avoid any unlawful communication of such information.

(3) A person shall not obtain official information where he is aware or has reasonable grounds for believing that the communication of such information to him would be a contravention of subsection (1).

(4) In this section "duly authorised" means authorised by a Minister or State authority or by some person authorised in that behalf by a Minister or State authority.

In practice, the Official Secrets Act proved to be a blunt instrument, in that it did not distinguish between trivial or routine current information and sensitive and damaging information. The Archives Act, 1986, introduced a statutory right to information of an historical nature albeit in a way that left the exercise of discretion on release entirely in the hands of civil servants.

Between the 1980s and 1990s, however, consistent with developments overseas, a major shift occurred on the question of access to official information. This shift was driven by changing societal attitudes to openness in government and all walks of life and by initiatives within the Irish public service aimed at improving services and its own management practices.

The societal impetus was driven by groups such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the "Let in the Light" campaign, as well as individual politicians and political parties, all of whom sought legislation that would bring enhanced openness and transparency to the government process. A private members Bill was introduced in 1985, without success. In the 1990's public concern intensified in relation to the performance and accountability of public bodies. This was triggered by issues arising from beef export arrangements, the supply of infected blood, institutional abuse and so on. Indeed, the report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Export Scheme found that there was a lack of documentation for decisions on the granting of export credits in support of the beef industry.

In 1994, an initiative now known as the Public Service Modernisation Programme was launched by the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds T.D. Two years later, a group of top civil servants produced a report called "Delivering Better Government" which set the modernisation agenda for the civil service. One of the recommendations contained in the group's report was that freedom of information legislation should be introduced as soon as possible.

The political impetus for change first became concrete in the Programme for Partnership Government in 1993, agreed between Fianna Fáil and Labour, which committed the parties to "considering the introduction of freedom of information legislation". A change of Government took place in 1994. In its Programme for Government the coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left committed itself to:

the enactment of freedom of information legislation to cover both central government and the broad public sector ....The legislation will be prepared so as to ensure that the necessary exemptions are kept to minimum, and it will contain a mechanism for independent review and appeals.

Following an extensive consultation process which drew on submissions from interested parties, discussions with public bodies affected as well as the experiences of overseas legislators in this area, the coalition government introduced the Freedom of Information Bill which was passed by the Oireachtas in 1997. The Freedom of Information Act, 1997 came into effect on 21 April, 1998.