“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
[Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach 1913-1970]
As much as for a sport as intensely competitive as American football, ‘keeping the score’ is often an important element of the activities of NGOs working to promote openness and transparency internationally.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index is probably the best known (though not without its critics in terms, for example, of the high degree of subjectivity and the large margins of error when compared with actual corruption – see Bertrand and Mullainathan 2001).
In this context, I recently came across the most recent (June 2015) edition of the Right to Information (RTI) Rating, which seeks to provide a comparative ranking of Freedom of Information (FOI) laws across 102 countries.
While of course in these instances there is no TMO (or indeed Citing Commissioner!) one would have to objectively question some of the refereeing decisions on Ireland’s rating.
Notwithstanding the sweeping reforms of FOI that I introduced in the FOI Act 2014, Ireland’s overall score increased over 2014 by just 3 marks to 95 (out of a maximum of 150) increasing its international ranking by 2 places to 35 overall.
A more balanced assessment would surely yield 10 marks or so, bringing us over the key 100 threshold – though while bumping Ireland’s ranking up over a dozen places it wouldn’t have us in the medal table (rather joint 22nd with Finland).
Of course it’s important to make the case notwithstanding the importance of the legal framework – what is evidently more important is how it operates in practice.
This is borne out by the fact that some of the international paragons of openness and transparency such as Sweden, Canada and Norway languish in the lower divisions of the RTI League (in 41st ,59th and 61st place respectively) while some other countries that would not be recognised internationally as having yet incorporated in their systems of public administration a robust and enduring model of openness and transparency can be found in the Premier League of FOI.
This highlights the ongoing nature of a key second pillar of Ireland’s FOI reforms – the substantial work now underway in public bodies to implement the Code of Practice for FOI introduced under the Act designed – with the direct input of an expert group of external stakeholders – to ensure that the full potential and value of the Government’s FOI reforms were realised in practice in terms of how FOI operates on the ground.
A crucial aspect of the Code – strongly advocated by the expert external group – was the introduction of a Model Publication Scheme for Public Bodies which would help support the proactive publication of information by public bodies on a routine basis.
A public consultation on the Model Publication Scheme was undertaken and the Scheme has now been published. The benefit of this will be seen within six months when public bodies will begin to proactively publish information that they are not under obligation to. This will result in a more open public sector providing citizens with information and that is the spirit of the new FOI Act and the outcome I had envisaged.
A further milestone that was recently achieved in Ireland’s FOI journey on 14 October was the coming into effect of the extension of FOI set out in the FOI Act, 2014 to:
- An Garda Síochána
- Iarnród Éireann
- Gas Networks Ireland
- EirGrid plc
- ESB Networks Ltd
At a time that there is concern internationally that the tide is turning against FOI in some other jurisdictions, I will be taking the opportunity at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Mexico City next week to showcase our FOI reforms which strongly reflect effective citizen and civil society participation in the development of Ireland’s OGP National Action Plan.
What has been achieved in relation to FOI certainly reinforces the broader wisdom of Vince Lombardi’s American football adage:-
“Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is”.
Brendan Howlin T.D., Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
20 October 2015

