Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome this legislation and note it has been well debated in the other House, Sinn Féin has some issues with the new fees regime it will introduce. Sinn Féin is committed to giving citizens a real say in how politics works. We welcome the opening up of Government, which is needed to strengthen democracy and empower citizens as well as giving them ownership of the political system. They can only participate fully if they have access to the relevant information. Freedom of information legislation gives people access to information as to how public institutions are governed, taxpayers’ money is spent, etc. Access to this information should be based on need, public interest and not necessarily on any ability to pay. That is why we believe scrapping freedom of information fees is crucial for better governance.

The gutting of the freedom of information legislation in 2003 was a major step backwards for democracy because it restricted the oversight of public spending and Government policy-making. We welcome this legislation as it proposes a reduction in the period of exemption for Cabinet papers, along with the extension of freedom of information to a new layer of public bodies which are significantly funded by the State.

Earlier, the Minister committed to restoring the legislation to its pre-2003 format, namely, the scrapping of fees. This Bill does not fully scrap fees but introduces a new fees regime. During the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform hearings on the legislative proposals, open data advocate Gavin Sheridan testified that Ireland is an exception rather the rule when it comes to fees. The British Commons justice committee recognised that freedom of information fees set at a level high enough to recoup costs would deter requests with a strong public interest and, in turn, would defeat the purpose of the legislation. The former Information Commissioner, Emily O’Reilly, speaking in 2011 on the publication of her annual report, said, “The punitive regime relating to fees should be overhauled so as not to discourage people from seeking out information”. It is worth remembering that following the introduction of fees, freedom of information requests had halved.

While a new regime has been introduced, our issue is that there are fees in the first place. Access to information should not be a limited privilege in any guise but a fundamental right. TASC, Think-tank for Action on Social Change, estimated in 2010 that, based on figures provided by the Government, the cost of freedom of information to the State was 0.012% of overall expenditure, noting it was far from an exorbitant price to pay for stronger democratic oversight.

Sinn Féin will be introducing amendments on Committee Stage in this regard which we look forward to discussing further.