The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner makes her comments in an unpublished report. She also questions the failure to extend the FOI legislation to bodies like an Garda Siochana, the Adoption Board and the Central Bank.

"I am concerned that quite a few public bodies of some significance will remain outside the scope of the FOI Act and there does not appear to be any specific timeframe for their inclusion, " O'Reilly states.

The report, which has been seen by the Sunday Tribune, is the first review of the reasons given by 15 government departments for excluding certain bodies and information from the provisions of the FOI Act. It was submitted last month to the Oireachtas Finance Committee, which is chaired by Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming.

O'Reilly's report also reveals for the first time how the government introduced significant changes to the FOI Act last September without consulting her office.

The Information Commissioner only became aware of the exclusion of Health and Safety Authority investigations from the FOI Act after a query to her office by a member of the public.

Strongly-worded correspondence from O'Reilly's office to the Department of Finance on the matter is included in the report.

"The circumstances by which this office became aware of this amendment to the FOI Act were entirely unsatisfactory. . . [and] . . . placed this office in the unenviable position of not only being unable to provide accurate, up-to-date information in response to an enquiry, it also created an impression of being out of touch with FOI developments, centrally."

The 58-page report shows O'Reilly to be very much at odds with the government on the non-disclosure provisions adopted by each government department.

"Regrettably, there is a growing number of nondisclosure provisions in individual pieces of legislation.

The number now being reported on exceeds 150 instances, " O'Reilly states.

Almost 50 of the nondisclosure provisions have been introduced by the Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrat government.

"This shows that a culture of secrecy continues, " O'Reilly said. "There can be no doubt that it hinders the achievement of a simple, transparent and consistent approach to the treatment of information in public bodies."

In the report, O'Reilly calls for the new Garda Ombudsman to be covered by the FOI Act while questioning the decision not to extend the legislation to the new Private Security Industry Authority.

She opposes the stance by the Department of Finance in keeping the Dormant Account Funds and the National Pension Reserve Fund outside FOI, while she also commented that the Department of Education's continued policy of not releasing school inspection reports is "disturbing".