No more 30-year rules for state secrets

I can well understand how the release of 30-year-old state papers may be a god-send for those who must continue to provide us with our beloved media while their workers are being tenderly resuscitated from the trauma of the winter solstice. Nevertheless, such understanding does not excuse us from enquiring why we, the citizens of a self-governing republic, allow this pernicious practice of long-term concealment of public information to persist.
We elect to Dáil Éireann our deputies whose first duty is to prevent corruption and to ensure that the public good is promoted, preserved and defended with all due diligence. They dish out important jobs among themselves and there is enormous power vested in the chosen ones. The remaining deputies become backbenchers. They subject themselves to political orchidectomy which renders them impotent until the approach of the next general election. The net result of this is that our so-called self-governing republic is, in reality, governed by a secretive and, therefore, despotic oligarchy.

This oligarchy rules by that well-known principle of mushroom husbandry – keep ‘em in the dark and throw horse dung at them. They employ spin doctors to manipulate into acceptability such info-scraps as they deem fit for a public already incurably infected by a pestilential curiosity. All the rest is squirreled away in secret vaults for 30+ years. If, by any perverse chance, any of this stuff is required by, say, an inquiry, the file can be conveniently found to be lost.

Politicians are the servants of the people and we may let them forget it at our peril. Servants may not conceal anything from their masters, not for 30 years, not for 30 days, not for 30 seconds. It is the bounden duty of elected deputies to see to it that there are mechanisms and procedures in place to prevent concealment and its concomitant corruption.

It will be very easy to verify that the requisite procedures are in place. Every communication, be it letter, email, phone call, head to head chat or pillow-talk received by an elected or appointed public servant will be in the public domain within 24 hours of receipt. Howl away as much as you like about this, but bear in mind that there is no obligation whatsoever on anyone to become an elected or appointed public servant, nor is there any obligation on anyone to enter into communication with these servants. The adage about enduring the heat in the kitchen applies to all.

Bear in mind, also, that corruption flourishes in the darkness of secrecy.

Tomás Dalton
Ardee, Co Louth