Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Quinn has raised an important issue - the right to redress by a member of the public if a public body fails to fulfil an obligation, in this case concerning publication of information. I considered whether this provision should be maintained in making an amendment to the Bill in the Dáil to specify key information that would be required for inclusion in a publication scheme. However, when I examined this closely, I questioned the appropriateness of the provision in an FOI Act.

If a public body, or a body funded by the public purse, provides a service or operates a scheme for members of the public, and by virtue of the fact that the body did not publish information or published incomplete or inaccurate information, which resulted in a person being prejudiced or penalised or impacted negatively in some way because he or she was not aware of rules or procedures concerning that scheme or service, he or she should have a right to redress in the normal way. That is how it is done under the Ombudsman's legislation. The person has the right to redress. The old adage in law is ignorance is no defence. There has to be an impartial adjudication of whether, for example, I did not pay my water charges because I did not receive the letter. There has to be some reasonableness about this. Rather than providing for this in FOI legislation, which simply relates to information, the non-publication of information or any other act that impacts negatively on the citizen is subject to the broadened powers I have given to the Ombudsman in the most recent legislation. That is the appropriate vehicle to deal with the issue raised by the Senator. I considered this and that is the way it should be as opposed to being couched in an odd way in FOI legislation. It is a general administrative issue that would have an impact across the public service where people gave false information or withheld information. That has to be adjudicated on and the Ombudsman is the right person to do that to see if the complainant has a case or whether he or she is trying it on.