independent.ie, Michael Brennan, 16/5/2008

NEW Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has said he is willing to look at extending the Freedom of Information Act to the Garda.

Out the 70 countries with FOI acts, they are the only police force to be excluded.

However, he has ruled out scrapping the fees to use the act -- as recommended by the recent OECD report into improving the public service.

At a conference to mark the 10th anniversary, delegates heard how Freedom of Information (FOI) had been successfully introduced for the Metropolitan Police in London -- which includes the famous leather-jacket wearing detectives of the Flying Squad.

Mr Lenihan said the FOI Act had had a "revolutionary effect" on the public service and indicated he would consider extending it to the gardai.

"Of course I am always willing to examine any submission in regard to the scope of Freedom of Information but you will appreciate that in some organisations such as the Garda Siochana or the Defence Forces, there are some security issues which arise," he said.

Delegates heard that Fianna Fail had originally criticised the FOI Act as too limited when it was introduced by the Rainbow Government, with Donegal North East TD Jim McDaid stating in 1997: "Leaving (the gardai) outside the remit of FOI facilitates mismanagement and corruption".

The conference heard that the FOI Act had been used in Britain to uncover the number of police serving in local stations, the details of long- forgotten murder investigations and even the cost of a chief constable's four-wheel drive vehicle.

Garda Detective Inspector Brian Brunton asked if the FOI Act could be confined to police administrative matters rather than more sensitive issues such as security, intelligence and immigration.

"Change does not come easy to any police organisation. These are important issues to us," he said.

Sensitive

However, former London Metropolitan Police inspector Howard Back provided reassurances that "the crown jewels" (sensitive information) would be protected under FOI.

"My view is that there are sufficient exemptions in place to protect that information and that the day to day activity is not covered by FOI," he said.

There have been 130,000 FOI requests since the legislation was introduced, but Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said requests had fallen dramatically since the "premature and ill-conceived" amendment in 2003, which saw charges introduced.