Exclusion of Nama will damage trust, says commissioner

THE DECISION to exclude the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) from the Freedom of Information Act will undermine public trust in the institution, the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly warned.

Ms O’Reilly said it was a “no brainer” that making Nama subject to FoI requests would help shore up public trust.

Speaking at the launch of her annual report, she said Nama was now such an important part of people’s lives, FoI access to it could only be a good thing.

“There’s a bit of a contradiction between all the demands for more openness and transparency and finding out how the economy went south and now, when everybody is determined to keep their hands around their homework,” she said.

She understood Nama dealt with commercially sensitive information, she said, but there was already a section 31 clause which provided for withholding such information in certain circumstances. She contrasted the refusal to make Nama subject to the FoI Act with the situation in the UK, where both the Bank of England and the financial services authority are subject to requests.

She said even when those requesting the information were refused, the inclusion of Nama would contribute to “good administration and governance within those public bodies”.

Her call for Nama to be included was backed by Labour Party finance spokeswoman Joan Burton who said the act was one of the few ways citizens could get real answers.

Ms O’Reilly also criticised the proposal to exclude from the act the enforcement section of the National Employment Rights Authority, which identifies employment abuses and breaches of the minimum wage.

It stems from a decision she made in September last year to allow the release of information about companies which the authority found were not paying the minimum wage. An FoI request last year was originally refused by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the parent body of the authority, on the basis it might jeopardise attempts to recover outstanding money for employees.

The commissioner responded that the publication of the names might have the opposite effect of encouraging greater co-operation from employers in breach of the minimum wage. She overruled the objection.

Ms O’Reilly said she was surprised to receive correspondence from the department in December that it was considering removing the enforcement functions of the employment rights authority from the FoI Act. She cited a report in The Irish Times about the exploitation of migrant domestic workers in Irish homes as evidence of the need for the rights authority and also warned its functions would be diluted if it was excluded from the act.

She also expressed disappointment that An Garda Síochána, the Central Bank, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority and the National Treasury Management Agency remain outside the act.

The enforcement functions of the Health and Safety Authority, the road safety functions of the Road Safety Authority, and the functions of the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds were no longer subject to FoIs.

In total, 14,290 FoI requests were made last year, up 13 per cent on 2008. The number of requests to the Department of Finance was up 51 per cent. The number of appeals to her office was up 7 per cent on 2008 to 324.