A weblog about Freedom of Information in Ireland, as well as broader Data Protection and data use issues.
Showing posts with label health records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health records. Show all posts
Monday, 10 June 2013
Kids, Bees and Migrant workers - and the Herald draws a blank
The big FOI story of recent days was the shocking revelations in RTE's Prime Time about conditions in some crèches in Dublin. Using Freedom of Information requests, the programme makers found that 75% of pre-schools and creches breached HSE regulations in 2012, but with few consequences.
Several newspapers picked up the story. "Details of 4,000 creche inspection reports dating back to 2011 make for deeply disturbing reading," wrote Miriam Donohue in the Irish Independent. Shane Phelan pointed out that records obtained by the paper, which showed issues cropping up as far back as 2008 in in crèches all around the country, were only obtainable through Freedom of Information requests, making it difficult for parents to judge how suitable their childcare arrangements actually were. Referring to another, different scandal, Kim Bielenberg observed that "It is no exaggeration to suggest that the state seems to be more efficient at inspecting meat plants than the places where we house small kids during the day."
The Irish Times, meanwhile, extended concerns to other age groups. FOI requests by the paper showed problems in care for elderly people in their own homes. Citing cases of misconduct in an area where there is no statutory inspection programme, the report added: "there is undoubtedly also a cohort of clients availing of home help and home care services who, because of their advanced age, do not have the capacity to complain. This means there could be examples of bad practice which are simply not on the HSE’s radar."
The Irish Examiner reported on the priorities of the Department of Health, which has recently disclosed spending of €111,022 sending officials to study negotiation skills at the prestigious Said School of Business at Oxford University since 2006.
Health, in the opinion of Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly, is one of the two worst performing departments on Freedom of Information, the other being Justice. In a story reported on by the Independent, Evening Herald and Examiner, she told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform that there was a culture within the two departments that made them the worst offenders for disclosing data. Over the past five years, she said, Government departments and bodies had cited 230 enactments containing non-disclosure provisions for not handing over information.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter, in the news recently for disclosing police information on a political opponent, and then coming under attack for failing to take a breathalyser test when stopped (he claimed inability due to asthma, and the Gardai have no record of the incident), was defended by a former minister, Liz O'Donnell in the Irish Independent: "Someone is out to get Alan Shatter". But she admitted the department's very poor record on transparency. "The concept of freedom of information is anathema to the Department of Justice," she wrote, adding that as opposition justice spokesperson, she experienced huge frustration in extracting information in parliamentary questions. "Replies to questions were minimalist, bordering on the misleading."
There were more excellent cases of how Freedom of Information can be used to discover solid, old-fashioned reporting. The Irish Times, covering Environment Minister Coveney's vote against an EU ban on insecticides, revealed that his department had received “information and/or correspondence” from insecticide manufacturer Bayer.
In Northern Ireland, the Irish News obtained details of fines for employing illegal migrants: Penalties of over £427,000 have been imposed on traders since 2010, and a total of 50 businesses were penalised between 2010 and March this year.
Finally, Dublin's Evening Herald has been on the case of Derek Keating, Fine Gael TD for Dublin West, who came in for criticism when he claimed credit for helping to secure an extension to a local non-sectarian school, the Educate Together school in Griffeen Valley. After a local free newspaper reported the school principal's claim that the TD had had no part whatsoever in winning the extension, one of his election workers was pictured on CCTV disposing of hundreds of copies of the paper. Keating insisted that he had been in contact with the Department of Education. But when the Herald used an FOI request to see the correspondence, they found that the TD had made representations on behalf of two other schools - but none in connection with Griffeen Valley.
Sunday, 26 May 2013
Viagra, A Fortress of Silence, and Ming in Two Places
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| Viagra: image by digital pretzel via Stock.xchng. |
The latest stories generated by FOI requests in Ireland.
The affluent Dublin South region is spending close to a million Euro a year on Viagra, according to figures released to the Irish Independent. This may possibly be of interest to Minister Alan Shatter (62), recently in the news for disclosing confidential data about another deputy. Shatter, whose constituency is in Dublin South, has also been in the news when Laura, his saucy novel published 24 years ago ('When she loosened her grip and her body relaxed, he knew he was going to erupt') was reported to the Censorship of Publications Board.
Fellow Dublin South TD, independent Shane Ross (63), complained in the Irish Independent that the Garda Siochana - not subject to Freedom of Information requests - were 'a fortress of silence, permanently alienated from the current demands for transparency'. His requests for information about expenses have not had a response for three months.
He refers to concerns raised about accusations of collusion by the force with a convicted drug trafficker. An independent investigation by the Garda Siochana Ombudman Commission was highly critical of failures to disclose information. 63 requests were made for information - only 17 were handed over in an agreed three month time frame; six took more than a year and one has still not been disclosed. 'The independent probe took four years,' Ross points out, while a gardai internal verdict on the issue of penalty points - which found no serious offences had been committed - 'took a matter of months'.
The collusion allegations were touched on by Emily O'Reilly, Information Commissioner and Commissioner for Environmental Information, when presenting her offices' annual reports. She called attention to an increasing tendency by public bodies to put requests on the long finger. Failing to cover for staff leave and closing the FOI unit for an entire month were among the worrying behaviour by authorities. Meanwhile the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation had decided unilaterally and without warning to cease collecting statistics on FOI requests. Of 188 bodies covered by the Act, 110 had failed to provide returns, which made it impossible to produce monitoring figures.
Separately, she blamed the recession, and the need for medical details to support welfare claims, for the 38% increase in requests, mainly for personal data, received last year.
The Irish Times reported worrying differences in response times to cardiac emergencies in different regions. Just one in three of the people in the Western region received attention within 8 minutes, the recommended target, compared to 60% in the East.
The Irish Independent revealed that Andrew McGuinness, son of the Public Accounts Committee chair John McGuinness, claimed over €30,000 in overtime while working as personal secretary to his father in the Department of Enterprise. Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid negative publicity over the use of the government Gulfstream jet, details of the use of the jet are to be published proactively.
Finally, it was disclosed that independent deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and a Fine Gael senator made use of a little-known rule of the Oireachtas to have themselves marked as present in Leinster House, when they were actually on a delegation to Morocco. Although the trip was funded by the Moroccan government, flights to the value of €6,333 were paid for by the Irish taxpayer.
Other stories:
A report in the Tyrone Times shows that 44 suicidal patients a week attend Accident and Emergency services in the area.
The British government is to hire private investigators to track down Irish students who have defaulted on over €4 million in student loans. This amounts to nearly half of the Irish students who received UK loans.
Inspection reports obtained by the Irish Independent show serious lapses in standards in childcare facilities.
The Central Bank was warned of problems with a James Joyce €10 coin before it was issued, according to broadcaster RTE. Although the coin featured an error in a quotation, it sold out within two days.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
25 Things We Know Now about Northern Ireland
The website What Do They Know allows people to send Freedom of Information requests direct, online, to public authorities. Here is a selection of things we know now about Northern Ireland, based on recent requests using What Do They Know.
- The Northern Ireland Civil Service does not have a policy on people in a close personal relationship working together.
- Craigavon Borough Council asks such staff to declare such relationships, but does not record them despite this being proposed as a policy in a report highly critical of the council.
- The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has a policy – apparently – of neither confirming nor denying whether individuals identified in their investigations are police informants. But if such a policy exists, it is not actually written down.
- Newry and Mourne District Council (‘SAVE PAPER! PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT!’) have 3-4 Lever Arch files of material on the naming of a playground after hunger striker Raymond McCreesh … which they printed out and sent to the requester.
- In the last financial year, the Northern Ireland Policing Board had 22,623 words translated into Irish, and only 32 words into Ulster Scots.
- Northern Ireland uses around 246 million carrier bags a year. The Department of the Environment’s levy on carrier bags is expected to raise £2.3 million in a year.
- The Police Service of Northern Ireland had arrested 195 and charged 164 in connection with flag protests by 20 February.
- Northern Ireland Housing Executive tenants are not specifically prohibited from flying flags on their homes.
- Belfast City Council did not charge the company managing the Christmas Market in City Hall any fee when they extended it by three days, to make up for the impact of flag protests on traders. They did this because they believed it would attract people back into the city centre.
- The Council considers it would take 24 hours of staff time to find the names of all the companies approached since 2006 to tender for developing its website.
- Peter Tallack, a dog expert in the case of the ‘pit-bull type’ dog Lennox, which was put down last year by Belfast City Council, was paid a total of £10,598.57 in respect of training, court appearances, dog examinations and travel.
- Banbridge Borough Council have still not responded to a request from last November about dog fouling statistics.
- Belfast Education and Library Board has still not replied to a query about construction projects.
- Lisburn City Council has two non-white employees, out of 525.
- Civil Service departments spend quite a lot of money on media monitoring, from the Department of Social Development which spent £7,340.43, to the Department of Education which spent £15,884.88. The Department of Justice, however, was way out of line: it spent £60,667.
- In 2012, Queen’s University Belfast made 412 offers to students for its 262 places in Medicine.
- The University has a scoring system for interviews for its dentistry courses. However it believes it is not in the public interest to disclose how it works. Definitely not.
- The Deputy Chief Constable of Northern Ireland does NOT have a superinjunction of any kind.
- The Northern Health and Social Care Trust has paid out more than £8 million in legal settlements for clinical negligence over the past 5 years.
- On 27 December last, in Accident and Emergency at Causeway Hospital, between 5.30pm and midnight, the average time before triage was 35 mins, and then 168 minutes before seeing a doctor (Category 4).
- In the last five years, 5 out of 17 grievances and 6 out of 8 dignity at work cases in the Department of Education were fully or partly upheld.
- The highest-paid staff member of the University of Ulster is paid nearly fifteen times as much as the lowest-paid.
- There are 24 children in Belfast primary schools whose home language is Somali.
- Ballymoney Borough Council has issued just two Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling since 2005.
- Two Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland have bought toilet rolls direct from a supplier, possibly because of shortages in the regional warehousing.
Friday, 15 February 2013
Why journalists use hotmail, how we're all related to the minister, and requesters in pyjamas: highlights of #FOI15
There’s nothing quite like meeting people who share your obsession. So I was pleased to be one of around 80 people – journalists, academics, FOI officers and campaigners – who gathered on Monday in the University of Limerick for a conference on The Right To Know: Examining 15 years of the Freedom of Information Act in Ireland.
We began with a British perspective, from Ian Redhead of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). With a Central Referral Unit handling data from 43 Chief Constables, they receive a very large number of requests and have trained over 300 staff per year in the principles of FOI. After years of growth, he sees requests reaching a plateau, implying that worries about the burden being unsustainable are misguided. Requests, he said, were ‘remarkably insignificant’ in terms of costing. For his organization, the major problem was that they shared data widely with other organizations, such as local government (‘we do big data’) and this creates new headaches: who actually holds the data? Who is responsible for its release?
Nat O’Connor (@tasc_natoconnor) of the TASC think-tank looked at FOI in a democratic society. With €44 billion of public expenditure, the cost of FOI is tiny, but vital, because it is a guarantee of our fundamental rights. The constitution guarantees the right of free expression – including criticism of Government policy. But, he pointed out, “you can only criticise government policy if you know what it is”. He contrasted the strict era of the Official Secrets Act of 1963 with the modern world of mashups and crowdsourcing; he pointed out that no up to date state directory exists; and emphasised the importance of standards in records management. Bad record keeping and lack of transparency lead to bad decisions.
Jennifer Kavanagh (@quiatimet) of Waterford Institute of Technology spoke about ‘The Right to Know and National Security in Ireland’. She looked at the proposed reforms to the act, which include replacing the blanket restriction on national security issues with a ‘harm test’. But the regime which allows ministers to certify that certain kinds of records cannot be disclosed is negative – there is no independent review process for these. This may be unconstitutional and will very likely be challenged in the courts but, she pointed out, previous case law has showed ‘undue deference’ to the executive in these kinds of cases. The courts need to assert their independence.
A speech by the Norwegian ambassador reminded us that Freedom of Information has its roots in Scandinavia – and of course his country charges no fees for access.
Then the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister, Brendan Howlin, rose to speak. After describing the ‘omertà-like’ tradition of secrecy that used to exist in government, he spoke about his proposals to reform and extend the existing law, which he insisted were ‘a work in progress’. Over 70 additional bodies would be brought under the new Act, which would bring about the recovery of Ireland’s reputation and be ‘in the top tier of international frameworks for facilitating access to official information.’
But he had little encouragement on the one issue keeping Ireland out of the top tier – the charging of fees for requests: if public bodies were not able to handle the surge of requests that would result from their abolition, this would impact on the credibility of Ireland’s FOI regime. And with public service jobs being cut back by 30,000, there’s no chance of extra resources. All he was prepared to offer was ‘a short, focused and targeted operational review of FOI’ to produce a Code of Best Practice; this would involve a public consultation exercise. While he insisted that he had an open mind on the subject, it was clear that, although fees for review and appeal would be reduced, charging for information is still very much part of the plan. Significantly, there was no sign even of a long-term commitment on abolition.
Conor Ryan (@conor_w_ryan), Investigative correspondent with the Irish Examiner and author of ‘Stallions and Power- The Scandals of the Irish National Stud’ then spoke about how FOI exemptions worked, in practice, as roadblocks for journalists, and of an extending gap between the expectation and the reality. “The interpretation of the Act,” he said, “is killing its spirit”. He referred to FOI officers feeling they had a lack of legal cover that stopped them releasing information they wanted to. Lack of clear guidelines and definitions meant that exemptions on personal data, commercial interest and the deliberative process were often used overcautiously, with information redacted that was already in the public domain.
Then we heard from Mark Mulqueen (@MarkMulqueen), Head of Communications for the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament). His perspective was the opposite to Conor Ryan: this was the public service view of how journalists treat FOI. (He later tweeted that he had offered ‘a gentle critique of the media use of FOI/ general info’) Misleading information had been published, he said, on lunches and expenses, despite errors being pointed out. In fact, a lot of information published under FOI was actually already in the public domain, and journalists still claim it as an exclusive. And he provided an answer to a question that puzzled me in my days as an FOI officer: why do journalists, from prestigious newspapers, send in requests using a hotmail account rather than their work email? The answer – which is obvious, come to think of it – is that they want to protect their ‘information asset’ – from their employers, presumably.
John Carroll (@johnjcarroll), special adviser at the Department of Transport, offered a similar view, but with a twist. A political appointee, he had been on Minister Leo Vardkar’s staff when in opposition, and had used FOI to gather information. Now he found himself facing requests, he had a different perspective. He produced some figures on media usage. It was less than he expected: “it’s not driving masses of newsprint”. About one story a week comes from FOI. Top journalistic users are the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, and the Irish Daily Mail. About half the requests were on expenditure, nearly a third on internal documents and correspondence, and a fifth on decision-making practices. There were, he complained, too many ‘contextless stories’.
After lunch, the main speaker was Emily O’Reilly, Ireland’s Information Commissioner. Her talk was on “FOI in Ireland: Lessons Learned”. She talked about the evolution of FOI in Ireland, and like Nat O’Connor, she looked back to the Official Secrets Act of 1963. She described the successes of the Act, as well as the ‘lurch back to the past’ which resulted from the 2003 amendments. The government’s current proposals, she said, would go a long way to restore the original act. There were some positive new elements. It would pave the way towards Irish signature of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents [NB: this may be optimistic, since the Convention appears not to support request fees]. But she still has concerns. Although the Gardaí would be subject to the Act as regards administrative measures, they would be specifically excluded from her normal right to entry of a public body’s premises. Excluding operational matters, rather than having them covered by the standard exemptions, would prevent proper oversight and failed to see the strong protection the Act already has – an example, she said, of “fear and timidity”. It’s not there to do harm, she insisted – we live in an information age, and it’s part of the zeitgeist: ‘a strong, evolving and unstoppable impulse towards openness’.
Richard Dowling (@richardowling), RTE’s North East Correspondent and author of "Secrets of the State and How to Get Them", continued the issue of the state’s obsession with secrecy. The proposed change to cover the Gardaí was too narrow, especially compared to how similar forces were covered in other countries. He highlighted a tendency to narrow legislation when it became inconvenient: so when FOI compelled disclosure of information held by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the government amended the law to ensure that only administrative records would in future be subject to the law. Similarly, an amendment to the Access to Environmental Information Regulations was introduced to ensure information would be refused if it would not be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. “Who benefits?” he asked, “do we get better governance?”
There followed two more specialised papers. Solicitor Sean O’Reilly looked at the problem of whistleblowing and the criminalisation of public interest disclosure. He examined recent cases in the European Court of Human Rights and their ramifications for Irish law. Although quite technical, the broad conclusion seemed to be that, as long as the law did not contain an absolute ban on disclosure, provided an official appropriate channel for concerns to be aired, and allowed for external review, whistleblowers stood a high chance of being prosecuted. What is still unclear is whether the person’s motive was a factor.
Damian McCallig (@DamienMcC_dli) from the School of Law at NUI Galway then spoke on a topical subject – what rights next of kin have to see the records of deceased people. (This is under Freedom of Information law, not Data Protection, which ceases on death) He went through the changes that have taken place in recent years, from a general assumption that the next of kin should have access to a more complex view today which sees the wishes of the deceased, to the extent that they can be assessed, as of prime importance. (One interesting point is that the legal definition of next of kin has very precise hierarchy and includes, at the bottom of the list, the Minister of Finance. This appears to mean that, technically, we’re all relations of Michael Noonan.) Damian ended by emphasising the importance, wherever possible, of recording the intentions of the information subject before they die.
By this stage, the conference was drawing to a close and the remaining two speakers had to compress their presentations to fit. Gavin Sheridan (@gavinsblog) of thestory.ie outlined his own experiences in using FOI to extract information from government departments - and sometimes sending out requests in his pyjamas. He noted that charge estimates for search and retrieval seemed to be increasing of late, and a great inconsistency between different departments in how they respond to requests.
Finally, Tom Felle (@tomfelle), a former journalist who now lectures at the University, and with Maura Adshead was responsible for organising the conference, presented a paper on FOI and the Irish Parliamentary System. Apologising for having to severely curtail his presentation, he looked at how the historical foundation of the state, as a very fragile democracy, led to a centralised and secretive administration.
This culture continued in subsequent years, with the 1939 Emergency Powers Act only being lifted in 1994. What really made a difference was the exposure of Irish Civil servants to a different way of working when they attended meetings in what was then the European Economic Community, as Ireland joined in 1973: attitudes were dramatically changed. The cult of secrecy was gradually weakened. The publication in 1992 of the report of the Beef Tribunal propelled change, by pointing out that had misleading answers not been given to Dáil questions in the first place, the whole thing could have been avoided. Since the Act was introduced, members have used it extensively – and effectively – but the existence of fees is still seen as a disincentive.
As so often at conferences, some of the most interesting details came up in the informal final discussion that followed. There were several voices supporting the importance of good records management, and Gavin and I had a chance to discuss the practicalities of requests with some government FOI officers who had come along. Apart from the fact that Gavin’s name is now notorious among civil service staff, we learnt some very useful information about the pressures on Irish FOI officers, the lack of training and the rapid turnover of staff, and the difficulties in applying a ‘vexatiousness’ exemption. I also gained a possible answer to why such a high number of requests are abandoned at an early stage – it’s because, I was told, they are often answered outside the terms of the act when otherwise they would be a few days overdue.
All in all, this was an excellent conference, with a wide variety of inputs and some interesting discussions – it was only a pity that we didn’t have more time for audience participation. Who knows what we will be discussing in another 15 years?
We began with a British perspective, from Ian Redhead of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). With a Central Referral Unit handling data from 43 Chief Constables, they receive a very large number of requests and have trained over 300 staff per year in the principles of FOI. After years of growth, he sees requests reaching a plateau, implying that worries about the burden being unsustainable are misguided. Requests, he said, were ‘remarkably insignificant’ in terms of costing. For his organization, the major problem was that they shared data widely with other organizations, such as local government (‘we do big data’) and this creates new headaches: who actually holds the data? Who is responsible for its release?
Nat O’Connor (@tasc_natoconnor) of the TASC think-tank looked at FOI in a democratic society. With €44 billion of public expenditure, the cost of FOI is tiny, but vital, because it is a guarantee of our fundamental rights. The constitution guarantees the right of free expression – including criticism of Government policy. But, he pointed out, “you can only criticise government policy if you know what it is”. He contrasted the strict era of the Official Secrets Act of 1963 with the modern world of mashups and crowdsourcing; he pointed out that no up to date state directory exists; and emphasised the importance of standards in records management. Bad record keeping and lack of transparency lead to bad decisions.
Jennifer Kavanagh (@quiatimet) of Waterford Institute of Technology spoke about ‘The Right to Know and National Security in Ireland’. She looked at the proposed reforms to the act, which include replacing the blanket restriction on national security issues with a ‘harm test’. But the regime which allows ministers to certify that certain kinds of records cannot be disclosed is negative – there is no independent review process for these. This may be unconstitutional and will very likely be challenged in the courts but, she pointed out, previous case law has showed ‘undue deference’ to the executive in these kinds of cases. The courts need to assert their independence.
A speech by the Norwegian ambassador reminded us that Freedom of Information has its roots in Scandinavia – and of course his country charges no fees for access.
 |
| Minister Howlin speaks to a bunch of microphones. |
But he had little encouragement on the one issue keeping Ireland out of the top tier – the charging of fees for requests: if public bodies were not able to handle the surge of requests that would result from their abolition, this would impact on the credibility of Ireland’s FOI regime. And with public service jobs being cut back by 30,000, there’s no chance of extra resources. All he was prepared to offer was ‘a short, focused and targeted operational review of FOI’ to produce a Code of Best Practice; this would involve a public consultation exercise. While he insisted that he had an open mind on the subject, it was clear that, although fees for review and appeal would be reduced, charging for information is still very much part of the plan. Significantly, there was no sign even of a long-term commitment on abolition.
Conor Ryan (@conor_w_ryan), Investigative correspondent with the Irish Examiner and author of ‘Stallions and Power- The Scandals of the Irish National Stud’ then spoke about how FOI exemptions worked, in practice, as roadblocks for journalists, and of an extending gap between the expectation and the reality. “The interpretation of the Act,” he said, “is killing its spirit”. He referred to FOI officers feeling they had a lack of legal cover that stopped them releasing information they wanted to. Lack of clear guidelines and definitions meant that exemptions on personal data, commercial interest and the deliberative process were often used overcautiously, with information redacted that was already in the public domain.
Then we heard from Mark Mulqueen (@MarkMulqueen), Head of Communications for the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament). His perspective was the opposite to Conor Ryan: this was the public service view of how journalists treat FOI. (He later tweeted that he had offered ‘a gentle critique of the media use of FOI/ general info’) Misleading information had been published, he said, on lunches and expenses, despite errors being pointed out. In fact, a lot of information published under FOI was actually already in the public domain, and journalists still claim it as an exclusive. And he provided an answer to a question that puzzled me in my days as an FOI officer: why do journalists, from prestigious newspapers, send in requests using a hotmail account rather than their work email? The answer – which is obvious, come to think of it – is that they want to protect their ‘information asset’ – from their employers, presumably.
John Carroll (@johnjcarroll), special adviser at the Department of Transport, offered a similar view, but with a twist. A political appointee, he had been on Minister Leo Vardkar’s staff when in opposition, and had used FOI to gather information. Now he found himself facing requests, he had a different perspective. He produced some figures on media usage. It was less than he expected: “it’s not driving masses of newsprint”. About one story a week comes from FOI. Top journalistic users are the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, and the Irish Daily Mail. About half the requests were on expenditure, nearly a third on internal documents and correspondence, and a fifth on decision-making practices. There were, he complained, too many ‘contextless stories’.
After lunch, the main speaker was Emily O’Reilly, Ireland’s Information Commissioner. Her talk was on “FOI in Ireland: Lessons Learned”. She talked about the evolution of FOI in Ireland, and like Nat O’Connor, she looked back to the Official Secrets Act of 1963. She described the successes of the Act, as well as the ‘lurch back to the past’ which resulted from the 2003 amendments. The government’s current proposals, she said, would go a long way to restore the original act. There were some positive new elements. It would pave the way towards Irish signature of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents [NB: this may be optimistic, since the Convention appears not to support request fees]. But she still has concerns. Although the Gardaí would be subject to the Act as regards administrative measures, they would be specifically excluded from her normal right to entry of a public body’s premises. Excluding operational matters, rather than having them covered by the standard exemptions, would prevent proper oversight and failed to see the strong protection the Act already has – an example, she said, of “fear and timidity”. It’s not there to do harm, she insisted – we live in an information age, and it’s part of the zeitgeist: ‘a strong, evolving and unstoppable impulse towards openness’.
Richard Dowling (@richardowling), RTE’s North East Correspondent and author of "Secrets of the State and How to Get Them", continued the issue of the state’s obsession with secrecy. The proposed change to cover the Gardaí was too narrow, especially compared to how similar forces were covered in other countries. He highlighted a tendency to narrow legislation when it became inconvenient: so when FOI compelled disclosure of information held by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the government amended the law to ensure that only administrative records would in future be subject to the law. Similarly, an amendment to the Access to Environmental Information Regulations was introduced to ensure information would be refused if it would not be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. “Who benefits?” he asked, “do we get better governance?”
There followed two more specialised papers. Solicitor Sean O’Reilly looked at the problem of whistleblowing and the criminalisation of public interest disclosure. He examined recent cases in the European Court of Human Rights and their ramifications for Irish law. Although quite technical, the broad conclusion seemed to be that, as long as the law did not contain an absolute ban on disclosure, provided an official appropriate channel for concerns to be aired, and allowed for external review, whistleblowers stood a high chance of being prosecuted. What is still unclear is whether the person’s motive was a factor.
Damian McCallig (@DamienMcC_dli) from the School of Law at NUI Galway then spoke on a topical subject – what rights next of kin have to see the records of deceased people. (This is under Freedom of Information law, not Data Protection, which ceases on death) He went through the changes that have taken place in recent years, from a general assumption that the next of kin should have access to a more complex view today which sees the wishes of the deceased, to the extent that they can be assessed, as of prime importance. (One interesting point is that the legal definition of next of kin has very precise hierarchy and includes, at the bottom of the list, the Minister of Finance. This appears to mean that, technically, we’re all relations of Michael Noonan.) Damian ended by emphasising the importance, wherever possible, of recording the intentions of the information subject before they die.
By this stage, the conference was drawing to a close and the remaining two speakers had to compress their presentations to fit. Gavin Sheridan (@gavinsblog) of thestory.ie outlined his own experiences in using FOI to extract information from government departments - and sometimes sending out requests in his pyjamas. He noted that charge estimates for search and retrieval seemed to be increasing of late, and a great inconsistency between different departments in how they respond to requests.
Finally, Tom Felle (@tomfelle), a former journalist who now lectures at the University, and with Maura Adshead was responsible for organising the conference, presented a paper on FOI and the Irish Parliamentary System. Apologising for having to severely curtail his presentation, he looked at how the historical foundation of the state, as a very fragile democracy, led to a centralised and secretive administration.
"Cabinet decisions were recorded without mention of descent or disagreement, early Cabinet handbooks recommended burning papers not needed again, and sealing documents in special envelopes using wax."
This culture continued in subsequent years, with the 1939 Emergency Powers Act only being lifted in 1994. What really made a difference was the exposure of Irish Civil servants to a different way of working when they attended meetings in what was then the European Economic Community, as Ireland joined in 1973: attitudes were dramatically changed. The cult of secrecy was gradually weakened. The publication in 1992 of the report of the Beef Tribunal propelled change, by pointing out that had misleading answers not been given to Dáil questions in the first place, the whole thing could have been avoided. Since the Act was introduced, members have used it extensively – and effectively – but the existence of fees is still seen as a disincentive.
As so often at conferences, some of the most interesting details came up in the informal final discussion that followed. There were several voices supporting the importance of good records management, and Gavin and I had a chance to discuss the practicalities of requests with some government FOI officers who had come along. Apart from the fact that Gavin’s name is now notorious among civil service staff, we learnt some very useful information about the pressures on Irish FOI officers, the lack of training and the rapid turnover of staff, and the difficulties in applying a ‘vexatiousness’ exemption. I also gained a possible answer to why such a high number of requests are abandoned at an early stage – it’s because, I was told, they are often answered outside the terms of the act when otherwise they would be a few days overdue.
All in all, this was an excellent conference, with a wide variety of inputs and some interesting discussions – it was only a pity that we didn’t have more time for audience participation. Who knows what we will be discussing in another 15 years?
Friday, 1 February 2013
News roundup - fast tracking, low taxing, the embassy flagpole and taking money from kids
The latest stories uncovered by FOI legislation in Ireland, north and south
The continuing effects of the 2009 economic collapse made up a major element in the latest batch of revelations from the press:
The Irish Independent revealed that of 114 former ministers entitled to the state's generous pension arrangements, just seven had made use of a scheme to allow them to surrender part of the payments. Widely considered extravagant in view of the current economic conditions, pensions are payable, in some cases, from age 50. Those taking the full amount include former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern (who had given up some of his payment while still serving as a TD) and Brian Cowen. Meanwhile, the paper reports that current Minister of Social Protection, Joan Burton, was told she was 'taking money from children's mouths' by a mother affected by child benefit cuts, in one of several emails and letters disclosed under the Act.
Accusations of the kind of clientelism widely considered to have helped create the present situation continue to be aired. According to the Independent, Taoiseach Enda Kenny found time to lobby officials to get student grants fast-tracked for his constituents. His close ally, Health Minister James O'Reilly, is having to explain why his department fast-tracked hospital upgrades in the constituencies of two cabinet colleagues (one of them Brendan Howlin, responsible for the proposed 'restoration' of Freedom of Information legislation), who promptly announced them to constituents even before the Health and Safety Executive had been informed. Another Reilly controversy rumbles on as Irishhealth.com reported that the Minister had been censured for failing to answer Dail questions on the issue of a primary care centre situated, at the last moment, in his contituency.
Health records have proved another issue where FOI is involved, according to the Irish Times. Failing to produce records under the Act was just one element in a 'wall of silence' a family faced from Tallaght hospital, in the case of the death of a 61-year old painter which resulted in the payment of a six-figure sum after a court case lasting more than seven years. The paper points out that, while records of the deceased can be accessed through FOI (data protection rights end at death), in the absence of release instructions from the patient, the Health and Safety Executive has to decide in each case whether disclosure is in the public interest.
The Times also discovered, using FOI, that errors in drafting led to the publication of incorrect information in a government-issued booklet on the children's rights referendum; and in another economy-related story, it disclosed that the American Chamber of Commerce has lobbied the Irish government to ensure that top executives should pay no more than 25% of their income in tax. Finally, it failed to mention FOI law at all in reporting that twelve companies had been disqualified from the government's JobBridge internship programme.The names companies were not named, it said, 'for data protection reasons'. (Data protection laws apply only to individuals)
The Irish Examiner discovered that money from the Irish foreign aid budget had been spent on replacing an embassy flagpole and fixing an ambassador's swimming pool, and broadcaster RTE reported that 128 prisoners are at large from the Republic's open prisons, including one sentenced for murder.
North of the border, on the other hand. All is quiet - under FOI at least, with only one story to report. Website The Detail reports on inequalities in punishments for benefit fraud in the province - with one person getting just 200 hours community service for falsely claiming £87,000, while a teenager was sent to prison for illegally claiming £91 in Jobseeker's Office.
The continuing effects of the 2009 economic collapse made up a major element in the latest batch of revelations from the press:
The Irish Independent revealed that of 114 former ministers entitled to the state's generous pension arrangements, just seven had made use of a scheme to allow them to surrender part of the payments. Widely considered extravagant in view of the current economic conditions, pensions are payable, in some cases, from age 50. Those taking the full amount include former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern (who had given up some of his payment while still serving as a TD) and Brian Cowen. Meanwhile, the paper reports that current Minister of Social Protection, Joan Burton, was told she was 'taking money from children's mouths' by a mother affected by child benefit cuts, in one of several emails and letters disclosed under the Act.
Accusations of the kind of clientelism widely considered to have helped create the present situation continue to be aired. According to the Independent, Taoiseach Enda Kenny found time to lobby officials to get student grants fast-tracked for his constituents. His close ally, Health Minister James O'Reilly, is having to explain why his department fast-tracked hospital upgrades in the constituencies of two cabinet colleagues (one of them Brendan Howlin, responsible for the proposed 'restoration' of Freedom of Information legislation), who promptly announced them to constituents even before the Health and Safety Executive had been informed. Another Reilly controversy rumbles on as Irishhealth.com reported that the Minister had been censured for failing to answer Dail questions on the issue of a primary care centre situated, at the last moment, in his contituency.
Health records have proved another issue where FOI is involved, according to the Irish Times. Failing to produce records under the Act was just one element in a 'wall of silence' a family faced from Tallaght hospital, in the case of the death of a 61-year old painter which resulted in the payment of a six-figure sum after a court case lasting more than seven years. The paper points out that, while records of the deceased can be accessed through FOI (data protection rights end at death), in the absence of release instructions from the patient, the Health and Safety Executive has to decide in each case whether disclosure is in the public interest.
The Times also discovered, using FOI, that errors in drafting led to the publication of incorrect information in a government-issued booklet on the children's rights referendum; and in another economy-related story, it disclosed that the American Chamber of Commerce has lobbied the Irish government to ensure that top executives should pay no more than 25% of their income in tax. Finally, it failed to mention FOI law at all in reporting that twelve companies had been disqualified from the government's JobBridge internship programme.The names companies were not named, it said, 'for data protection reasons'. (Data protection laws apply only to individuals)
The Irish Examiner discovered that money from the Irish foreign aid budget had been spent on replacing an embassy flagpole and fixing an ambassador's swimming pool, and broadcaster RTE reported that 128 prisoners are at large from the Republic's open prisons, including one sentenced for murder.
North of the border, on the other hand. All is quiet - under FOI at least, with only one story to report. Website The Detail reports on inequalities in punishments for benefit fraud in the province - with one person getting just 200 hours community service for falsely claiming £87,000, while a teenager was sent to prison for illegally claiming £91 in Jobseeker's Office.
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Jobs for the boys, a chef without a kitchen, and the mystery of the disappearing footballs
The latest roundup of news stories generated by Freedom of Information in Ireland
Jobs For the Boys (and Girls)
A report in the Irish Times disclosed how nine vacant seats on the board of the Blood Transfusion Service - worth nearly €8,000 a year - were being filled by political appointees, six from Fine Gael and three from Labour. Although applications from the public were invited, none of the 28 who applied were appointed. The paper also revealed plans for a direct meeting between government ministers and representatives of the Catholic Church, as part of an ongoing 'structured dialogue' process. Controversial prelate, Cardinal Sean Brady, it disclosed, wrote to new Taoiseach Enda Kenny after the election offering his prayers. Meanwhile, a Department of the Environment report shows concerns in local government caused by the current government hiring freeze: plans are afoot to fill empty jobs for outdoor workers and to hire 200 graduates to fill a staff 'generation gap'.Bad attitudes
The manner and attitude of staff was the major issue of complaint from patients in the Rotunda Hospital last year, according to the Dublin Evening Herald. None of the total of 104 complaints were about infection or cancellations. Meanwhile, it revealed that expenses billed to the Office of Public Works from the minister's office fell from over €36,000 five years ago to under €500 in the first six months of last year, although the story preferred to focus on the €412 paid on a hotel in China while investigating procurement of clothing for public services such as the Gardai and Defence Forces.A Chef Without a Kitchen
The Irish Independent, meanwhile, reports that the Department of Education was investigating why retired teachers were being employed by schools, often for weeks at a time. The figures, revealed by the paper in a request, showed 237 incidents. The Department, however, refused to disclose details of which schools were involved. Unlike in the UK, individual schools are not subject to FOI in the Republic. Another story reports the bizarre situation of the hospital in Galway which is paying a chef €46,000 a year even though he doesn't have a kitchen available and food has to be bought in from a local bar.The Men Behind the Wire
The Irish Examiner, meanwhile, reveals why the Department of Justice spends over €40,000 a year on footballs - it's because the light plastic balls, used in prisons for recreation, regularly end up unusable after being destroyed by the razor wire covering the walls.Culture and Security
Meanwhile, north of the Border, the Londonderry Sentinel writes that as Derry City prepares to become UK City of Culture, a planning committee set up for the event included representatives of the police services Security Branch, as well as the Head of Crime (a police officer, apparently, and not a master criminal as might be supposed).Monday, 26 November 2012
On the records
Two recent cases in the Republic about Freedom of Information and the Abuse of power
A Stroke Too Far?
In the Republic, Minister of Health James Reilly is in trouble - and Freedom of Information has a major part to play.
In July this year, working with Minister of State for Primary Care (a junior ministry) Róisín Shortall, the Department of Health produced a list of 20 primary care sites for development, a list weighted in favour of particularly deprived areas of the country. On 16 July, it was announced that this list, approved by the Minister of Health, was to be published; by now there were 33 potential locations on the list. When the list was published, it had grown to 35. There were two significant additions: Swords and Balbriggan, neither particularly deprived - and both in the Minister's constituency.
After it was disclosed that these locations had been added to the list after it was passed to Reilly's department, Minister of State Shortall - a member of the Labour party, minority partners in the governing coalition - said she found this 'difficult to understand'. Despite support from Labour rank and file, she was not supported and she resigned both the ministry and the Labour whip.
The accusation was made that this was 'stroke politics' - the kind of devious backroom deal that had been typical of Irish politics in the past - especially when it turned out that the site for the proposed Balbriggan centre was owned by a property developer linked to Reilly and his Fine Gael party. The Minister, who had had the list in his possession for a week before publication, explained that the selection of the sites was a complex operation: 'a logistic, logarithmic progression. There is nothing simple about it'.
But emails released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the two sites in question were added to the list in just two hours, shortly before the list was published.
The opposition has demanded his resignation. In a country that cared about such things, he would have resigned already. But as a close associate of the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and as deputy leader of the majority coalition partner, it's unlikely he will go.
'Stroke' politics may be alive and well in Ireland, but at least things which used to be carried out in private have now been exposed publicly. Let's hope the voters take this into account at the next election.
Off the record
Another medical-related story in the Republic: in the continuing saga of Savita Halappanavar's death, her husband has obtained copies of her medical records. A major part of the story was her repeated requests for a termination of her pregnancy, which was refused. But the records, eventually disclosed to her husband's lawyer, make not mention of this. They refer to her requests for a cup of tea and toast, and a blanket - but the termination requests do not appear to have been recorded.
This point led to a fascinating and troubling discussion on the MagicMum website. Commentators repeatedly described the medical records of their pregnancy and delivery as plain wrong: "There were lots of things missing off my notes", "Each time I was in hospital I would cry in agony during the night and request pain relief. Each morning was noted "patient slept well", "My notes were very different from the reality", "totally not true", "a work of fiction masquerading as medical notes", "My notes said I refused to push. I bloody did not."
One contributor pointed out that, in an understaffed wards, mistakes were inevitable: "When notes are being written , there are three things , what the patient thinks happened , what the staff member thinks happened and what actually happened . All of which are different ."
But others pointed out situations where facts seemed to be suppressed or distorted for a reason, especially when touching on the controversial subject of abortion:
Worryingly, while some contributors had been given easy access to their records, others found it difficult:
Practice note: the access regime for personal data in the Republic is the opposite of that in Northern Ireland. In the south, personal data is provided for free by public authorities but other requests require a fee paid; in the north, FOI requests are free but Subject Access Requests for personal data require a charge (not always levied).
A Stroke Too Far?
In the Republic, Minister of Health James Reilly is in trouble - and Freedom of Information has a major part to play.
In July this year, working with Minister of State for Primary Care (a junior ministry) Róisín Shortall, the Department of Health produced a list of 20 primary care sites for development, a list weighted in favour of particularly deprived areas of the country. On 16 July, it was announced that this list, approved by the Minister of Health, was to be published; by now there were 33 potential locations on the list. When the list was published, it had grown to 35. There were two significant additions: Swords and Balbriggan, neither particularly deprived - and both in the Minister's constituency.
After it was disclosed that these locations had been added to the list after it was passed to Reilly's department, Minister of State Shortall - a member of the Labour party, minority partners in the governing coalition - said she found this 'difficult to understand'. Despite support from Labour rank and file, she was not supported and she resigned both the ministry and the Labour whip.
The accusation was made that this was 'stroke politics' - the kind of devious backroom deal that had been typical of Irish politics in the past - especially when it turned out that the site for the proposed Balbriggan centre was owned by a property developer linked to Reilly and his Fine Gael party. The Minister, who had had the list in his possession for a week before publication, explained that the selection of the sites was a complex operation: 'a logistic, logarithmic progression. There is nothing simple about it'.
But emails released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the two sites in question were added to the list in just two hours, shortly before the list was published.
The opposition has demanded his resignation. In a country that cared about such things, he would have resigned already. But as a close associate of the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and as deputy leader of the majority coalition partner, it's unlikely he will go.
'Stroke' politics may be alive and well in Ireland, but at least things which used to be carried out in private have now been exposed publicly. Let's hope the voters take this into account at the next election.
Off the record
Another medical-related story in the Republic: in the continuing saga of Savita Halappanavar's death, her husband has obtained copies of her medical records. A major part of the story was her repeated requests for a termination of her pregnancy, which was refused. But the records, eventually disclosed to her husband's lawyer, make not mention of this. They refer to her requests for a cup of tea and toast, and a blanket - but the termination requests do not appear to have been recorded.
This point led to a fascinating and troubling discussion on the MagicMum website. Commentators repeatedly described the medical records of their pregnancy and delivery as plain wrong: "There were lots of things missing off my notes", "Each time I was in hospital I would cry in agony during the night and request pain relief. Each morning was noted "patient slept well", "My notes were very different from the reality", "totally not true", "a work of fiction masquerading as medical notes", "My notes said I refused to push. I bloody did not."
One contributor pointed out that, in an understaffed wards, mistakes were inevitable: "When notes are being written , there are three things , what the patient thinks happened , what the staff member thinks happened and what actually happened . All of which are different ."
But others pointed out situations where facts seemed to be suppressed or distorted for a reason, especially when touching on the controversial subject of abortion:
"I've had an abortion previously and told the Coombe [Hospital] so. The midwife insisted on recording it as a 'confidential' pregnancy, saying that that was how they record them all, despite the fact that I told her 3 times I didn't mind it being recorded as an abortion."
"I went to two different hospitals over 5 pregnancies. The first of those 5 pregnancies resulted in a termination. That hospital put it down as an abortion on the following pregnancy. I changed hospital and on the next three pregnancies they recorded it as a miscarriage along with my other miscarriages. I told them at each booking in appointment that it was an abortion and they listed them all as miscarriages at 14, 13 and 10 weeks."
Worryingly, while some contributors had been given easy access to their records, others found it difficult:
"I asked to see them once and the nurse told me I wasn't allowed see them. She went off to check with someone and came back to say I definitely wasn't allowed see them."
"I applied under data protection and was told that as I had a private consultant, the notes were not mine but his property."This is a really good example of the importance of Freedom of Information legislation available to ordinary people. One way of ensuring that accurate records are kept is to encourage people to check their own records. Falsifying information or playing down uncomfortable realities is an abuse of power - and one that can only be answered by ensuring that everyone has the right to tell their side of the story. It should not take a tragedy like that of Savita Halappanavar to get this message across.
"After my first was born, I wrote a complaint in my notes under the delivery records - when I requested my notes a year later, the page was photocopied and my complaint was cropped."
"I browed through and mixed with my notes were the notes of a totally different patient."
Practice note: the access regime for personal data in the Republic is the opposite of that in Northern Ireland. In the south, personal data is provided for free by public authorities but other requests require a fee paid; in the north, FOI requests are free but Subject Access Requests for personal data require a charge (not always levied).
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