The newly-appointed Information Commissioner and Ombudsman was last night in conflict with the Government, following her sharp criticism of the decision to charge for Freedom of Information appeals.
In a forthright statement, the Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy's decision to impose a €150 levy for final appeals could discourage the public from using the legislation. "The progressive nature of the charges could act as a financial disincentive to requesters exercising their rights of appeal," the Commissioner said in a lengthy statement.
"Where their requests are refused they may feel dissuaded, on grounds of cost, from making an application for internal review or appeal to the Commissioner," she went on.
The "scale of charges" may distort the original ambition of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation, which said that its purpose was to enable the public to obtain information to the greatest extent possible, she said.
However, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who named Ms O'Reilly for the post in March, rejected the criticism. "He would not accept that. He feels that the fees are modest," said his spokesperson.
Meanwhile, there are fears that industrial school abuse victims may have to pay for FOI requests, despite guarantees given by the Minister to the Oireachtas when he brought in curbs to the original 1997 legislation.
"Someone wanting to put in a request for their own files and for inspection files would not be putting in a request for purely personal information and they would have to pay," said one source well versed in FOI rules.
Rejecting criticism of the charges, the Department of Finance said just 3 per cent of all FOI application refusals are appealed all the way up to the Information Commissioner.
"The Minister feels that the fees are a modest contribution towards the operation of the Act. On average, 48 per cent of all FOI requests are for personal information and they won't be affected by this," said a Department official.
The €150 final appeal charge ordered by the Government compares poorly with international experience.
The state government in Ontario, Canada charges just €16 to accept such appeals.
The state governments in Western Australia and Queensland - which operate Freedom of Information legislation similar to the model used in the Republic - do not charge either.
However, final appeals to the Federal Australian authorities cost €334, though the Administrative Tribunal is staffed by judges and operates as a full court, delivering lengthy legal judgments.
Commissioner O'Reilly warned that she now intends to carefully monitor the usage of the recently amended legislation, particularly to investigate if some people are discouraged from using it.
Meanwhile, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Mr Seamus Dooley, accused the Government of "a scandalous betrayal of the Irish people" by imposing "punitive" charges. He said "the decision to charge €150 for appeals to the Information Commissioner was a deliberate attempt to place access to information outside the reach of ordinary citizens and journalists".
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