tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400591649782259838.post6688044339959063346..comments2015-09-26T22:13:43.863+02:00Comments on FOIreland: Three steps forward, two steps back: Ireland's proposed new Freedom of Information ActRodneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00688423342819329871noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400591649782259838.post-39100654430913939212013-01-25T10:54:15.916+01:002013-01-25T10:54:15.916+01:00Great to see this focus on Freedom of Information....Great to see this focus on Freedom of Information.<br />Thanks for the updates and links.<br /><br />You and your readers might find my comments/proposals of interest<br /> thejournal.ie http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-cronyism-and-corruption-%E2%80%93-one-quick-change-would-help-fight-them/<br /><br />Other comments<br /><br />1. Open letter sent to all TDs and Senators in September 2011 – 6 months after the new Dáil sat<br />Copy attached. I did follow up by calling in to lobby my local TDs, following an initial meeting (I called into his clinic in a pub in Coolock!) with Minister Richard Bruton early in the summer of 2011, shortly after the new Government took office. I also raised FoI with Brendan Howlin at a MacGill Summer School function in Dublin in December 2011<br />a. The web-site politicalreform.ie was kind enough to put the letter up where it attracted some comments here<br />http://politicalreform.ie/2011/09/09/open-letter-to-tds-and-senators/<br />b. I posted further on the same issue in another thread on 30th September 2011 here<br />http://politicalreform.ie/2011/09/30/seanad-public-consultation-committee/comment-page-1/#comment-6037<br /><br />2. These followed three other efforts going back a few years, which I set out in reverse order<br />a. My (pro-bono) contribution to the Dublin City Business Association 10 point Manifesto Towards a Second Republic, published on the web in February 2011, just as the General Election campaign started see <br />• For the full document, see here http://www.dcba.ie/?p=236<br />• My contribution on Freedom of Information starts on p.88 here<br />http://www.dcba.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Towards-a-Second-Republic.pdf<br /><br />b. In June 2010, the editors of politicalreform.ie were kind enough to post a thread I wrote on FoI <br />Here http://politicalreform.ie/2010/06/21/freedom-of-information-and-corruption/<br /><br />c. In March 2003, I had letters published in two newspapers on the then proposed changes to the 1997 Freedom of Information Act<br /><br />In 1996, I made a personal submission to the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, in which I proposed adding the then Swedish text covering Freedom of Information to our 1937 Constitution. <br /><br />While I have not changed my mind on the need to insert such a provision in our Constitution (as part of the checks and balances on the powerful), I think that it is perfectly sensible and adequate for the time being, to campaign to have the 2003 FoI Act simply repealed.<br /><br />Hence my letter in ITimes on Tuesday 10th July 2012 here http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2012/0710/1224319720550.html<br /><br />Donal O'Brolchainnoreply@blogger.com