FREEDOM OF Information (FoI) requests from politicians and journalists paid a crucial role in uncovering the scandal of high spending at Fás last year.
Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said yesterday that “the Shane Ross effect” had turned a steady drip of revelations about the State-training agency into a deluge.
At one point, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Dáil Public Accounts Committee got more information about Fás expenses through FoI requests than from documents the agency supplied directly to the committee.
However if this was the most prominent revelation to emerge thanks to the FoI, there were many others:
- A plan within the HSE to divert spending from the Government’s mental health strategy to meet deficits in other areas;
- Departments’ spending on advertising, public relations and other consultants;
- Details of construction industry contacts with the Department of Finance about fixed-price contracts for infrastructure projects;
- Discussion between the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Arts about possible tightening up of the artists’ tax-exemption scheme;
- A request by a Co Wexford school for guidance on wearing the Islamic hijab, and
- The revelations that 40,000 prisoners had tested positive for drugs in a three-year period.
- Ms O’Reilly last year took on an additional role as Commissioner for Environmental Information and issued her first decisions.
These included:
- Overturning a decision of Sligo County Council to charge a group of citizens €285 for data about proposed wastewater and sewage treatment plants in the county;
- Directing Kildare County Council to provide the Hill of Allen Action Group with information about a local quarry;
- Granting a request by an applicant for access to a report of Cabinet discussions on Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions;
- Upholding a Courts Service decision to refuse an applicant access to affidavits in two High Court cases.