The Government has chosen an independent-minded woman journalist to be the new Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, reports Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent
"It is a normal human impulse to avoid embarrassing scrutiny, to avoid exposure. This Government refuses - like most governments - to be guided by the higher virtues of justice and honesty." So wrote the woman set to become the next Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, just over three weeks ago in her Sunday Times column. She was writing in the context of the Government's plans to restrict the Freedom of Information Act.
Those plans were vigorously defended again in the Dáil last night by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who is responsible for the Government's plans to restrict the Act. The same Mr McCreevy recommended to the Cabinet earlier yesterday that Ms O'Reilly be given the prestigious posts of Ombudsman and Information Commissioner.
A person who holds both positions has the capacity to be a great thorn in the side of Government and officialdom. The two posts have been held by the same person, Mr Kevin Murphy, since the post of Information Commissioner was created in 1998.
Mr Murphy recently engaged in a public battle with the Revenue Commissioners over their refusal to pay compensation to people from whom they had wrongly deducted tax. He finally won this issue this month when Mr McCreevy introduced a last-minute amendment to the Finance Bill. More recently still, he has pointed to flaws in the Government's plans to restrict the Freedom of Information Act and in the process has shrugged off criticism from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
In light of this recent experience, some ministers might wish to see the posts occupied by a shrinking violet. It is a mark of Mr McCreevy's independent-mindedness that he has gone for the opposite. Just as his independent-mindedness got him into so much trouble with the proposed appointment of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty to the European Investment Bank, it is likely to earn him credit for the appointment of an independent-minded woman to these posts.
Ms O'Reilly also wrote early this month that ministers "hate the FOI Act because it exposes them and their occasional limping idiocy as they go about their daily business. When FOI works we don't just see the Cabinet swan, we see the ungainly flapping flippers beneath the water. The amendments will mean all swan and no flipper."
The changes, she said, have "nothing to do with ensuring good governance, everything to do with watching Bertie's back". It is a sign of her own independence that Ms O'Reilly wrote these comments at a time when she knew that the self-same Bertie and his ministers would within weeks be sitting down to decide whether she should get the €172,409 a year post.
The Ombudsman's Office was set up in 1984 to examine complaints from members of the public who feel they have been unfairly treated in their dealings with public bodies. In its 16 years of existence, the office has dealt with over 50,000 such complaints and has publicly condemned a wide variety of public bodies for unjust treatment of citizens. The first Ombudsman, Mr Michael Mills, was also a journalist.
The Information Commissioner has reversed many decisions of public bodies to refuse access to certain records, and has directed that these records be released. Ms O'Reilly said yesterday there were similarities between her work as a journalist and the work she will be carrying out if appointed by the President. "The Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner is a referee between the Government and the public and to some extent that is what a journalist is as well."
Ms O'Reilly, a native of Tullamore, Co Offaly, has been a journalist for over 20 years. Currently a political columnist with the Sunday Times, she has been political editor of the Sunday Business Post, political correspondent of the Irish Press and Northern editor of the Sunday Tribune. She also served as editor of Magill and has worked as a broadcaster with RTÉ and Today FM.
She has written three books, one on the 1990 presidential election campaign, one on right-wing activists in Ireland opposed to divorce and abortion, and one on the late Veronica Guerin. This last showed great courage in questioning the murdered journalist's methods as a crime reporter and Independent Newspapers' handling of her.
She is also a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.