Senator Michael McDowell has accused Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s department of engaging in a “cover up” after it decided not to publish minutes of meetings of the Interdepartmental Group which considered proposed amendments to the Constitution over the course 2023.
In a statement Senator McDowell condemned the decision after O’Gorman’s department decided it was not in the “public interest” to publish the minutes of the meetings.
Slamming the move McDowell quipped that, “The public interest requires keeping the public in the dark.”
“The Department has refused access to all 64 pages of notes and minutes discussing the consequences of the amendments including tax laws, social welfare laws, pension laws, allocation of family assets, alimony and allowance including the laws in relation to family reunification for asylum seekers.” he said.
McDowell says the withheld records include minutes of 16 meetings of the cross-departmental group and that records “also include correspondence with an NGO named “Treoir”.”
He continued that the department’s “flawed opinion” was that to allow access and publish these minutes would be “premature” and might impinge on “the integrity and viability of the referendums”, as “public officials could be seen to promote” referendum outcomes “in breach of what the Departments says are the McKenna/McCrystal Principles.”
Accusing O’Gorman’s department of wishing to “suppress all information in the minutes of the cross-departmental meetings until after the people have voted in the referendum.” McDowell asked if the Irish people were not entitled to know “what the implications are of giving much wider rights for family reunification to asylum seekers and immigrants?”
“False Reliance on the Electoral Commission”
Pointing to the role of the Electoral Commission as being “charged” with giving the public “impartial and accurate information”, McDowell said the Electoral Commission “cannot tell the public what the consequences of the referendums will be for tax laws for family law relating to divisions of family homes, businesses, farms and pension law, criminal law, and succession law to name but some.”
“All the Electoral Commission can do is to tell voters that the courts will have to decide “hard cases” in future disputes.” he said.
“Cover Up”
Accusing O’Gorman’s department of engaging in a “cover up” he said he ‘rejects’ the department’s “flawed reasoning” for “refusing public access to the process that led to these constitutional amendments being rushed through the Dáil and Seanad by Minister O’Gorman using guillotine motions to prevent proper debate.”
Senator McDowell continued, “The Department’s decision perverts the democratic process which requires giving the people all the facts before they vote in a referendum.”
He concluded his statement adding, “As one leading, legal authority on Freedom of Information said: “The public is only marginally concerned with reasons supporting a policy which an agency has rejected…in contrast the public is vitally concerned with the reasons that did supply the basis for an agency policy actually adopted.”
“There is no justification for this departmental cover-up of the processes and considerations that have led to these flawed referendum proposals.” he said.
Last week Gript’s Gary Kavanagh revealed how 96% of salaries at the National Women’s Council of Ireland are paid for directly by grants from government departments and the HSE.
As a leading campaign group supporting a ‘yes yes’ vote in the upcoming referenda on ‘women in the home’ and ‘the family’, Kavanagh questioned whether the NWCI’s reliance on government funding compromised their position as an independent campaign group.
Read the full report here.