Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I welcome the Minister's decision to reappoint Ms Emily O'Reilly as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner. I also thank the Taoiseach for his courtesy in contacting and consulting Deputy Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party, in respect of the appointment. Ms O'Reilly has performed her functions as Ombudsman well and has been well served by a diligent and dedicated staff.

The Ombudsman is often the point of last resort for individuals who have been aggrieved by systems of public administration. There has been massive development of public bodies in the past 20 years, with large numbers of middle and senior managers appointed. Many of those appointments and structures are not amenable to the more informal advising and provision of information that was the norm at one time. Having an Ombudsman who can take up issues of how public authorities deal with those who pay their wages is a vital form of recourse. It is valued by those who approach the office.

Sometimes it takes a long time. The issues must be thoroughly investigated and there can be constraints on resources. We have made proposals for the extension of the office to cover information being made available to taxpayers independent of the Revenue Commissioners where an issue has arisen related to a taxpayer's rights.

That brings me to another question. Over the years of her appointment, the Ombudsman, on a number of occasions, has written to the various committees and the House in a number of reports about her dissatisfaction with her powers and has recommended substantial increases in the powers under her various offices or the extension of the remit of her powers to additional bodies. I welcome the fact that when the legislation is completed, her powers will be extended to vocational educational bodies. However, it is very bad that her powers do not extend to the financial area. We have a system of financial regulation in this country involving the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank, the NTMA, the National Development Finance Agency and the National Pensions Reserve Fund, and all of them are pretty much exempt from the freedom of information legislation and the Information Commissioner.

The Freedom of Information Act was introduced by the Labour Party and implemented by Fianna Fáil after it came into office in 1997. It has probably been responsible for some of the most important cultural changes in this country. Today, we have all been talking about different tragic aspects of the Ryan report on the abuse of children in institutions by clergy and others. If recourse to freedom of information had been available to many of the individuals who suffered in those institutions, it would have made an enormous difference.

Tens of thousands of people, pensioners and ordinary people have invested relatively small to medium and large sums of money in our banks. They have no recourse to freedom of information and the best tribute the Minister could pay to the Ombudsman would be to extend her remit to those areas. While we are all praising her here, the highest form of praise from the Minister would be to extend her remit to those areas that have been requested and serve the public demand for freedom of information.

See this speech in context