Ms Emily O'Reilly:

I will begin by saying that was then and this is now. There is a new spirit in Oireachtas committees in regard to how they view themselves, their role and their powers, particularly vis-à-vis the Executive. I have appeared before quite a few committees in recent years and have detected a change.

On the Deputy's question, there is obviously a lot of work involved. My office spent a lot of time doing it. This is not an issue as it is part of my office's responsibilities. Equally, the Departments have put in a lot of work. As I stated and as Deputy Fleming will remember, there was excellent engagement. Questions were asked and the Department's views were put. As the Chairman stated, committee members are not bound to agree with me; nor is the Department. Committee members make up their own minds on these matters.

At the time in question, I had a strong feeling that there was agreement on many areas. I did not expect to achieve agreement in every area but found it a bit strange not to have agreement in any area. It concerned the mood at the time in regard to FOI. There was general negativity in regard to the matter. There was an unwillingness to let go of the levers of control and allow an independent body, set up precisely to carry out effectively, ethically and well the role assigned to it in the legislation, to carry out its functions. Other obstacles got in the way. At the time in question, there were members of the committee on all sides who were very unhappy with that.

I do not know, as an outsider, precisely what went on, although I know the outcome. Professionally, it was quite frustrating at the time as one felt that one had been asked to perform a certain job under the law and was doing so to the best of one's ability. It was as if one had come out on the football pitch to play a game but no one else was playing. It was frustrating but it was a cultural issue. In certain areas, however, I felt while the Office of the Information Commissioner and the idea of public transparency lost the battle, they won the war. For example, because of the brouhaha caused not just by the committee hearing on the school inspection reports but also by certain court cases, the Department of Education and Skills got the message and moved to publish all inspection reports. What was very instructive about that issue was that certain bodies, including the INTO, were saying it was Armageddon, that the entire education system would collapse and that we would get crude league tables coming out as a result, but none of those harms resulted. There are almost 3,000 whole-school evaluations available and I challenge anyone to make a league table out of them, crude or otherwise, because the language in them is terribly bland. "There is a lovely English teacher here. They do geography very well. The paint is peeling a little bit but the fences are neatly trimmed." That is the language. It is a bit of a hobby horse of mine.