In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston’s job is making awkward documents and reports disappear down the “memory hole”: “Day by day and almost minute by minute, the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct ...”
The Irish Civil Service appears to be implementing the suitably Orwellian practice of “unpublishing”. The past is being “brought up to date” through the disappearance – deliberate or otherwise – of official documents from departmental websites.
Why? Could it be because they provide information that could be used to hold those departments (and their political masters) to account for failing to deliver their plans?
Last week, when writing here about the figures that show shocking numbers of Irish children going to bed hungry, I was looking for the research on food poverty commissioned by the Department of Social Protection in 2024. Under “The Action Plan on Food Poverty and the associated research report are available”, the site said “Item was unpublished or removed”.
Official documents are quietly disappearing from departmental websites. Why?
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That column was published last Tuesday. In the afternoon, I checked the site again and, remarkably the “unpublished” bit had itself disappeared. The documents had been, to venture further into Newspeak, un-unpublished – in effect, restored.
This tells us that the availability or otherwise of public policy and research documents can be deliberately manipulated.
Shining a dim torch down the memory hole, here is a sample of purposefully disappeared evidence.
1. In 2017, the then minister for housing published a crucial online map showing, as the press release headlined, “Over 2,000 hectares of land suitable for housing in State/semi-State ownership” with “potential for up to 50,000 new-build homes on these lands”. The link now goes merely to the home page of the Housing for All website. There is no map of these sites.
2. That map was part of Rebuilding Ireland, the grand housing strategy published by the government in 2016. The redoubtable housing policy analyst Lorcan Sirr tells me: “It looks like nearly all the Rebuilding Ireland policy information and documents have been taken down from the Department of Housing’s website.”
3. The Department of Health’s link to the Project Ireland 2040 infrastructure plan, launched with great fanfare in 2019, now reads: “Item was unpublished or removed is the government’s overarching policy initiative to make Ireland a better country for all of us, a country that reflects the best of who we are and what we aspire to be.”
4. The Department of Public Expenditure’s announcement of updates to the same plan now reads: “The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, has today launched an updated Item was unpublished or removed ... This suite of material underlines the steady progress being made in the implementation of Item was unpublished or removed.”
5. The unveiling of the 2022 white paper on the transition to a decarbonised economy now tells us that the relevant ministers “have launched the Item was unpublished or removed which was approved by Government today”.
6. The plug has been pulled on the Government’s policy statement “to ensure security of electricity supply to 2.4 million homes and businesses throughout Ireland”, issued by Eamon Ryan in 2021. “The Policy Statement can be accessed/viewed Item was unpublished or removed”.
7. The announcement of the then government’s plan on artificial intelligence now says: “The Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Dara Calleary today published the Item was unpublished or removed ... A number of key achievements have been delivered so far including: delivering the Item was unpublished or removed in October 2022”.
8. The Department of Education’s link to the Report of the Expert Group on Student Participation, launched by Norma Foley just last year, now reads: “The full report and detail can be found at Item was unpublished or removed”.
9. The announcement in 2021 of the Department of Health’s plan to “reduce levels of salt, sugar, saturated fats and calories in processed foods” was accompanied by a roadmap for implementation. It is now an announcement that the minister “today launched Item was unpublished or removed”.
10. The Department of the Environment’s plan on cutting pollution from solid fuels now boasts that “to reduce its effects, we introduced the Item was unpublished or removed in October 2022”.
11. The “vision to make Shannon Estuary Region a renewable energy powerhouse”, published by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in 2022, has been washed away on the “unpublished or removed” tide.
12. The name of the financial industry’s lobby group that meets regularly with the Government to discuss its plans for the sector has been deleted. The lobby now meets “on a quarterly basis with the Item was unpublished or removed”.
13. The public submissions on the implementation of the Lobbying Act in 2020 have gone down the memory hole: “These submissions have been published and can be viewed at Item was unpublished or removed.”
14. The bioeconomy strategy on “the production of renewable biological resources” has been unpublished on the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment site.
15. As a piece de resistance, the public consultation on the review of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act now informs us that “For more details on the review process, the review roadmap is available at the following link: Item was unpublished or removed”.
The range of departments engaged in this disappearing act strongly suggests it is not accidental. These documents are not secret. They could, presumably, all be accessed by using FOI – if you know exactly what you’re looking for and can wait for weeks or months. Some can be found elsewhere online. And bear in mind that they represent thousands of hours of work by public servants themselves.
The function of the memory hole is to make it harder for citizens, civil society organisations, opposition politicians and journalists to hold ministers and senior civil servants to account for what they have and have not done. Every prediction made by the Party can be shown to have been correct.
