Executive Secrecy and Access to Policy: Lessons from the Past in Irish Legal and Political History

Abstract

Earlier this year, the veil of secrecy that surrounded Brian Lenihan’s bank bailout decision in 2008 was heavily criticised. The administrative culture, which appeared obsessed with secrecy, was linked to ideas of political reform – one of the main platforms upon which the current government ran its 2011 election campaign. In this paper, Jennifer Kavanagh argues that the workings of executive secrecy undermine a citizen’s right to engage with government policy. Some restrictions may be deemed permissible in order to protect the workings of government. In the Irish context, these restrictions are found in cabinet confidentiality, Official Secrets Act and the retrenchment of the Freedom of Information Acts. The paper highlights the extent of executive secrecy as it exists and the extent to which the executive seeks to keep the policy making process behind closed doors. This is contrasted with the implications of such secrecy on those that seek to peer behind the veil of executive secrecy by examining the Kennedy and Hamilton cases. This paper offers an insight into some of the lessons that can be learned from a closed-door policy making process and its implications for the nature of the democracy which it seeks to protect.