The success of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act (in most quarters anyway), and the publication by the Government last week of the first report on its operation, come with two developments - there is talk of extending the Act's scope and the British are planning to copy us.
The Act already applies to public bodies including government departments and, sources say, such has been its success in opening up the bureaucratic process that the Cabinet will now consider extending it to cover other publicly funded institutions. Top of the list are the universities - a group not likely to take a government diktat lightly.
Meanwhile, next Tuesday junior minister Martin Cullen, who has responsibility for FoI, meets the British minister Lord Williams at Westminster to brief him and the UK parliamentary committee on our success. The Home Office's bill is not going down well and is putting Secretary of State Jack Straw under more pressure than he already faces because of the breakdown in the passports office. The lobby groups in particular feel his Bill exempts too many and is not radical enough.
Half a dozen British officials came here some months ago to study how we avoided the organisational problems and court actions which have damaged such acts elsewhere. Our people attribute this to the consultative process, the extensive training given to civil servants and the deliberate effort to abandon the secrecy ethic for the FoI Act's smooth operation.
But do the British know that all here is not as perfect as it seems? Some civil servants resent the intrusion, extra work and hassle, and some still cling to the old creed of secrecy. But it is the archivists who are most unhappy, believing a wealth of information is being lost because politicians in particular, but also officials, are not committing to paper much of the usual detail, now that previously private correspondence and notes of confidential conversations can be released to interested parties including political opponents, the media and the public. Indeed, even among departmental advisers minutes of meetings are not being kept and telephone calls are replacing memos and letters.