Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Mairéad Farrell, on both bringing forward the motion and her work with Deputy Clarke on the related legislation. I want to broaden out the debate a little to some direct experiences I have had with FOI that really show why the public and very specific groups of people absolutely have the right to know. These are reflections on my experience struggling to get responses to FOI requests, some of which I am still battling several years on.

As Members of the House will know, in Millford Manor, Newbridge, County Kildare, there was a very serious fire a number of years ago due to very shoddy Celtic tiger-era construction work. An entire block of terraced homes burnt down in 60 minutes when there should have been a 60-minute fire break between each home. Deputy Kelly was the then Minister with responsibility for housing. He commissioned an urgent study. That study was completed. However, it took us two years to get that report published. Residents living in the surrounding houses who were living in homes built by the very same developer, potentially with the same defects, were denied access to that report for two years. What better case for the right of the public to know than not knowing whether the home in which you are living is unsafe?

I can see no reason many of us were denied access to that report despite repeated FOI requests. The usual excuse is deliberation. While that is acceptable for a short period, it was not for the full duration.

More controversially, as Deputy Doherty will know well, it has been almost five years since the Mulcahy report, commissioned into allegations of planning corruption in Donegal, was completed following the request of the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. We have been submitting FOI requests in respect of that report every six months since 2017 or 2018. Not only has the most recent request been refused but we have been told the Department has no timeline. That may have been acceptable when these matters were matters within the Department but they are now matters for the Planning Regulator, and I can see no reason that report, which again relates directly to individuals who had to fight in the courts to clear their names and good standing, cannot be released. Therefore, the Department and the current Minister seem to be following the approach of his predecessor in using various ruses to prevent access to that really important report, which may reveal significant issues relating to the ongoing controversy in regard to defective block and mica affecting thousands of families in Donegal.

I am also fighting battles to get records of correspondence between Dublin City Council, Dublin Fire Brigade and Stanley Holdings in respect of two fire safety inspections in 2011 and 2012 at a housing estate in Belmayne, north County Dublin, again in regard to an issue of defects and whether systems failed between the council and the fire brigade, and in regard to what interactions they had with the developers between a fire safety inspection 2011 that found no defects and one in 2012 that did.

I have other disputes in respect of the Land Development Agency and the shared equity loan scheme. I have experience of submitting identical FOI requests to three State agencies and getting different responses from each of them. While I appreciate there are rules and the FOI officers do a very good job, I am convinced that at a political level decisions are being made and excuses are being found in the legislation to deny the public access to this documentation unacceptably.

For those reasons, I urge the Government not only to support the motion but also to listen to the concerns of the Opposition to ensure these other issues will be dealt with into the future.

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