Tony Gregory
Ceist:55 Mr. Gregory asked the Taoiseach the number of documents withheld from the national archives by his Department since the National Archives Act; the reason documents were withheld; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Withholding of Documents from National Archives.
To date, almost 14,000 files have been transferred from my Department to the National Archives under the terms of the National Archives Act, 1986. The number of Department of the Taoiseach files which have not been made available for inspection by the public under the Act is 553.
Files have been withheld for the following reasons, in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 (4) of the Act:
|
Number |
|
|
(i) Section 8 (4) (a):— |
|
|
That release would be contrary to the public interest, or |
52 |
|
(ii) Section 8 (4) (b):— |
|
|
That release would or might constitute a breach of statutory duty, or a breach of good faith on the ground that they may contain information supplied in confidence, or |
90 |
|
(iii) Section 8 (4) (c):— |
|
|
that the release would or might cause distress or danger to living persons on the ground that they contain information about individuals, or would or might be likely to lead to an action for damages for defamation |
333 |
|
(iv) Section 8 (4) (a), (b) + (c) |
12 |
|
(v) Section 8 (4) (b) + (c) |
66 |
|
553 |
Files which have been withheld are reviewed on a five yearly basis to establish if their continued retention is warranted.
In accordance with an Order made under section 8 (11) of the Act, personnel and pensions case files and related records concerning individual civil and public servants are withheld also.
All statistical records of the Central Statistics Office have been withheld under section 8 (11), in view of the guarantees of confidentiality given to respondents to statistical inquiries.
Tony Gregory
Ceist:56 Mr. Gregory asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of documents withheld from the national archives by his Department since the National Archives Act; the reason documents were withheld; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
In accordance with Section 8 (4) (a) of the National Archives Act, 1986, the Department of Foreign Affairs has withheld 16 files from public inspection in the National Archives on the grounds that their release would be contrary to the public interest. The Department's policy has been to keep to the absolute minimum the number of files withheld in this category.
Section 8 (4) (b) and (c) of the Act further provides that, subject to certification, departmental records which
(b) would or might constitute a breach of statutory duty, or a breach of good faith on the ground that they contain information supplied in confidence, or
(c) would or might cause distress or danger to living persons on the ground that they contain information about individuals, or would or might be likely to lead to an action for damages for defamation
may also be withheld from public inspection. Under these provisions the Department's approach has been to withhold as a general category, all personnel and consular files which relate to individual members of staff or the public. The number of individual files, particularly in the consular category over the period since the Department was established is substantial and runs to an estimated total of around 40,000. In the case of files in these categories, however, the Department has been willing to re-examine any files in which researchers express a particular interest, with a view to de-restriction wherever possible.
The foregoing is the position in relation to the number of files withheld. In so far as the Deputy in his question seeks information on the number of individual documents, as distinct from files containing documents, I regret that the precise information sought is not readily available and compiling data, particularly in relation to the various personnel and consular files, would involve an inordinate amount of staff time.