Access to local government information in Ireland: Attitudes of decision makers

Abstract

This paper explores the attitudes of Irish local government FOI decision makers towards the operation of access to information legislation, in particular the Freedom of Information Act. It is based on the results of a survey of local government FOI decision makers. The survey sought to ascertain the views of local authority decision makers on issues such as: the benefits, if any, that FOI and other access provisions bring to local government and to the public; the problems, if any, which such provisions are perceived to cause for the operations of local authorities; the level of support for access from senior management in local government; the extent to which, if at all, the introduction of access rights has reduced the amount of information committed by local government officials to paper; and the adequacy of existing local government records management systems to cope with the demands of meeting access requests. It also addresses an issue of particular interest in the Irish local government context, namely the impact, if any, which access regimes have had on the use of elected members as go-betweens with regard to the interactions of individual members of the public with local authorities.