Commenting on the publications, TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony said:

“Secret government, hidden information and blanket confidentiality are all inextricably linked to costly decisions which could be avoided if more people knew about them sooner. We need to open up policy-making to public scrutiny – by starting at the top and insisting that real explanations for policy decisions are given to the public by ministers as a matter of course. People are tired of spin and sound-bites.

“TASC’s work on open government follows on from our work on public bodies and accountability, published as Outsourcing Government in 2006, and the report of the Democratic Audit Ireland project, Power to the People, published in 2007. Strengthening Ireland’s democracy is vital to securing sustainable economic development, and public access to complete information is a basic right to ensure that explanations and evidence are given for the public policy decisions which affect us all”, Ms. Pentony said.

In The Role of Access to Information in Ireland’s Democracy, Dr O’Connor argues that Ireland lags behind comparable democracies in terms of open government and policy-making. The Oireachtas is one of the weakest parliaments in Europe, due to its lack of power to compel ministers to answer questions or deliver documents to committees in a timely manner. Dr O’Connor also contends that a culture of secrecy – exemplified by the fact that no government has abolished the Official Secrets Act 1963 – prevents the public to gain meaningful explanations of government policy decisions. The Freedom of Information Act 1997, designed to open up decision-making to public view, was eviscerated in 2003. The paper argues that a major shift in thinking is required if Ireland is to catch up with other advanced democracies and move to an era of open policy-making.

In An Economic Argument for Stronger Freedom of Information Laws in Ireland, Dr O’Connor presents the evidence that the current fees regime does not lead to any cost recovery and in fact is likely to increase administrative costs and deter ordinary people from making requests. He also demonstrates that the costs of administering FOI are far outweighed by the material benefits in terms of money saved as a result of the prevention or early detection of errors made by public bodies. Finally, Dr O’Connor points out that stronger FOI is essential to facilitate businesses re-using public data as a resource – a resource which, based on EU figures, could be worth a minimum of €83 million annually.

Speaking this afternoon, Dr O’Connor said:

“The economic crisis has brought home two important facts. Firstly, many decisions were taken during the boom and since that have never been explained or justified to the public, who are paying the price for those decisions. Secondly, we are facing a political crisis as well as our economic crisis. There is a lot of talk of political reform, but successive governments have failed to act on countless reports. It is time to give real power back to the public through laws that provide easy access to the background documents which explain current public policy.”