Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will release the letter of 19 November 2010 from Jean-Claude Trichet in view of the investigation by the EU Parliament into the role of the troika in Ireland and other countries. [1649/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The European Parliament has decided to draft an own initiative report evaluating the structure, role and operation of the Troika’s actions in euro area programme countries, including Ireland.

The EU Parliament’s review of the role and operations of the Troika is ongoing, indeed a delegation from the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee is in Ireland today and tomorrow for meetings as part of the review.

However, the Parliament’s review has no connection with the core issue of your question on which the position remains as I outlined in my replies to Parliamentary Questions 155 of 28th June 2011, 125 of 18th July 2013 and 37 of 3rd October 2013.

While the immediate crisis that this Government inherited when it took office has been averted, it remains important for relationships between institutions to be developed and sustained, in order to allow for confidential negotiations to take place, especially on particularly sensitive issues. This is particularly the case in relation to the Irish authorities dealing with the ECB. It is normal practice for states to protect the confidentiality of these discussions, and in fact is usually enshrined in the rules of association of institutions.

Requests to release the letter have been considered a number of times under the Freedom of Information Acts. The decision has been made to refuse these requests in line with the relevant sections of the Act. This provides for exemptions for records relating to, for example, information received in confidence, commercially sensitive information and the financial and economic interests of the state in sections 26 and 31 and particularly 24.2. These factors counterbalance the public interest, protecting the ability of the Government when negotiating or deliberating on matters of national importance. The refusal to release the letter has been upheld on one occasion by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

I do however understand that, on foot of a special request from the European Ombudsman, the ECB is to consider the release of the letter, and should they decide to do so, the need to respect the confidentiality of the letter will no longer apply.