Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Another area worth looking at is the recording of records. Neither the FOI Act nor the National Archives Act 1986, which covers Departments' records, specifically require Departments or State bodies to make records in the first place. We now have a situation where civil servants are recording less and less and are not taking minutes of meetings all the time or notes of calls.

I was looking at a document entitled Governance Framework of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Minister's own Department, written in 2016. It states, "It is proper to maintaining a meaningful record of the department's activities to regularly thin out the documents you work with and to retain only those that provide for efficiency and contribute to transparency, accountability and a meaningful archival record." I take it that "thin out" is another word for shredding. It needs to be looked at. Currently, it is only an offence under the FOI Act to destroy a record after a request has been received in relation to that record. We have a situation, for example, where NAMA can destroy all the emails of staff 12 months after they have left and it is not illegal. Is that right? Should it be that way? Does the Minister agree this is information that is in the public interest? Surely it is hardly good enough that NAMA should be allowed to destroy it after one year.

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