RTÉ advised Minister how to keep FOI request secret
RTÉ advised Minister Michael Ring that he would be able to keep secret a Freedom of Information request he made about the pay and expenses of GAA legend Pat Spillane if he said it had been done as part of his work as a TD.
In correspondence with RTÉ, Mr Ring then officially stated he had sought the information in his capacity as a member of the Dáil rather than as a Government minister.
This was despite the fact that Mr Spillane had been employed by Mr Ring’s department as a rural ambassador, was paid by it, and directly communicated
‘Requests from TDs deemed private’
with the minister about his role. The FOI request had originally come just four days after the GAA analyst had appeared on the Late Late Show and been highly critical of the Government and Mr Ring’s Department of Rural and Community Development.
Mr Ring looked for extensive details of Mr Spillane’s pay, expenses, as well as the amount of time he had appeared on air as ‘a matter of urgency’.
When the Irish Mail on Sunday first tried to establish who had made the request in December, RTÉ contacted Mr Ring to tell him of our efforts.
‘In accordance with best practice, RTÉ publishes a list of FOI requests every quarter,’ the broadcaster said. ‘Your FOI request which sought details about payments to Mr Pat Spillane was logged and the requester was identified as “a member of the Oireachtas”.
‘We have now received another FOI request… looking for the identity of that original requester i.e. you.’
RTÉ said: ‘It should be borne in mind that records from TDs and senators are exempt from release as they are deemed to be their private papers.
‘Requests from Ministers are less likely to be exempt. Essentially, did you send this request as a TD or in your official capacity as a Minister?’
The following day, Michael Ring responded: ‘I requested this information as a TD.’
That meant the request for his identity was refused on the basis that it was considered ‘private papers’, using legislation originally designed to protect whistle-blowers and official inquiries. That decision was subsequently appealed, with RTÉ later deciding that the minister’s name should be released.
In an email to Mr Ring, a second member of staff from RTÉ told him they had reversed their original decision. The minister did not respond to the broadcaster’s email.
Earlier, on The Late Late Show, Mr Spillane had dismissed a scheme to tackle rural isolation as ‘gobbledegook and horse s***’. He also said that Minister Ring was getting ‘bad advice’ from his officials.
The remarks infuriated Mr Ring, who released copies of text messages between the two men to a Sunday newspaper.
Asked this week why the minister had said the request was made in his capacity as a TD – when Mr Spillane had been employed by Mr Ring’s department, paid by them, and the two men were in direct communication about the role – no response was received from Mr Ring.
The MoS also asked RTÉ why it had advised Mr Ring that making the FOI request in his capacity as a TD would make it less likely for his name to be revealed.
An RTÉ spokesman said: ‘As many people who engage with RTÉ’s FOI process are not familiar with the FOI Act and how it works, it is necessary to give them guidance.
‘Consistent with the general approach taken by the RTÉ FOI Office to demystify the process to people less familiar with it, in this instance the FOI Office did not offer advice or recommend a course of action, but merely sought to highlight a distinction the Minister was unlikely to be familiar with.’
‘Attempt to demystify the FOI process’