THE constitutional doctrine of cabinet confidentiality has been breached for the first time with an historic decision last week by the Information Commissioner to order the release of a specific cabinet document to a Green Party local election candidate.

The ruling means that, for the first time in the history of the state, the public will have access to certain cabinet documents as soon as they are produced, instead of the traditional 30-year wait for them to be released.

The Information Commissioner, ruling on a request by Green Party activist Gary Fitzgerald for access to cabinet discussions on greenhouse gas emissions, effectively decided that the constitution's strict protection of cabinet confidentiality was trumped by EU law.

While Article 28.4.3 of the Constitution is emphatic about respecting the "confidentiality of discussion at meetings of the government", EU directive 2003/04 allows for members of the public access to information on environmental matters. There are circumstances in which a state can refuse to release information, but the directive specifically states that any request for information on "emissions into the environment" cannot be refused.

Fitzgerald made his request in March 2007, under the EU directive, for documents that report cabinet discussions on Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions for the years 2002 to 2007. The government at first refused his request, and after an unsuccessful internal review, Fitzgerald appealed the decision to the Information Commissioner that October.

In that appeal Fitzgerald pointed out that, "where there is a clash between a directly effective EU measure and a national law, of whatever formulation, the EU measure is supreme". The commissioner upheld this argument, concluding: "The department has not pointed to any case law or other material which serves to negate this argument. Neither do my own enquiries and research suggest that Mr Fitzgerald's argument is incorrect."

This landmark decision means anyone can request cabinet documents relating to emissions into the environment and the government must release them. Government sources said this weekend that an appeal of the decision to the High Court could not be ruled out.

However, Fitzgerald, a barrister, yesterday said he hoped the government would not challenge the decision in court as it would cost hundreds of thousands and would be likely to fail.