Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 207: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will invoke Section 40 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 and instruct the Garda Commissioner to provide all information and records relating to the contract assessment for the previous Garda video interview recording contract in view of the review carried out by the Information Commissioner which concluded that the records could now be provided if they were requested by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42686/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Section 40 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 provides that the Secretary General of my Department can request information, including documentation, from the Garda Commissioner as part of the process whereby the Garda Commissioner accounts to me as Minister and to the Government for his functions.

The circumstances surrounding the Deputy's question arise from a Freedom of Information request to my Department for access to records created and held by An Garda Síochána, which as the Deputy appreciates is not subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Acts. The Information Commissioner concluded in this case that the records in question were not held by or under the control of my Department, and that therefore the requester did not have a right of access to them. In coming to this conclusion, the Information Commissioner took into account the provisions of section 40.

I do not believe the power on the part of the Secretary General under section 40 to request documents from the Garda Commissioner was ever intended to be exercised for the purpose of bringing Garda documents, which would otherwise lie outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Acts, into the possession of the Department so as thereby to bring them within that scope. The right of access to the documents in question under the Freedom of Information Acts was very fully considered by the Information Commissioner, and her decision must be respected.

The Deputy may also be aware that the subject matter of the documentation has already been reported on by the Comptroller and Auditor General and was examined by the Public Accounts Committee in 2003.