FOI

"... to enable members of the public to obtain access, to the greatest extent possible consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy, to information in the possession of public bodies..."

Freedom of Information Act

1997/2003

http://foi.gov.ie/legislation/

Read it...

Sections 1 - 5

• Introduction
• General definitions

Public bodies are 'prescriptive' and are decided by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

Sections 6 - 18

Access

The Process

1) Send request €15

Decision within 20 working days

2) Internal review of decision €75

Decision within 20 working days

(No decision means free internal review)

3) Appeal to Information Commissioner

Can take a long time €150

Refund if settlement is reached

(Free appeal if the request times were not met)

4) Appeal to the High Court

On a point of law

Under Section 7 of the FOI Act I wish to request access to the following records...

"... give reasonable assistance..."

"... not later than 4 weeks... "

'deemed refusal' (See S41(1))

"any belief or opinion of the head as to what are the reasons of the requester for the request, shall be disregarded"

Search & Retrieval fee: €20.95/hour

You CANNOT be charged for redaction time (but they sometimes try to)

Estimates often wildly vary. Arguing your case will sometimes see reductions or eliminations of fees

Increasingly used to stymie requests by journalists

Must state reasons for granting or refusing

• Section 10 - (often used)

(1) a) Record does not exist

(1) c) Request is asking for too much

(1) d) Record is published anyway

(1) e) Request is frivolous or vexatious or the requester is writing pattern of 'manifestly unreasonable' requests

(1) f) Fee not paid

(2) Statutory obligation for public authorities to offer narrowing of scope if c) is applied

Section 12

• Copy of paper, digital, disk, data, video, audio
• Inspect record in person
• Unless... damages record etc

Section 15/16

• What info bodies have
• Updated every three years (!)
• Sometimes really useful

Sections 19 - 32

Exemptions

Section 19

Cabinet records and the 10 year rule

Section 20

Deliberative process

Section 21

Adverse effect on perfomance of body or its functions

Section 22

Legal/professional privilege

Private papers

Tribunals

Section 23

Prejudice or impair law enforcement or investigations

Section 24

Affect adversely the security/defence of the State

or international relations of the State

Section 25

Ministerial certificate

Section 26

Information obtained in confidence

See: Coco v A.N.Clark (Engineers) Ltd [1969]

"...the information itself...must have the necessary quality of confidence about it...

that information must have been imparted in circumstances imposing an obligation of confidence"

Section 27

Commercially sensitive

Arse!

Section 28

Personal information

D'oh!

See:

"Durant v Financial Services Authority" (UK/DP)

"The Governor and Guardians of the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women and the Information Commissioner" (Ireland) (2011)

"Gavin Sheridan and The Industrial Development Agency (2012)"

Section 29 [Procedures for 26/27/28]

Section 30

Research and natural resources

Section 31

Financial and economic interests of the State

Section 32

Other laws on non-disclosure

Section 33 - 40

The Information

Commissioner

Section 37 (7)

"A person who fails or refuses to comply with a requirement under this section or who hinders

or obstructs the Commissioner in the performance of his or her functions under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both"

Section 46: Records not covered

"Related to the President"

"Held by the Courts"

"Held by a Tribunal"

"Held by the AG or DPP"

"Private papers of Oireachtas members"

Access to Information on

the Environment Regulations

2007/2011

The lesser known law :-)

• Based on the Aarhus Convention (1998)
• European Directive 2003/4/EC
• SI/133/2007 & SI/662/2011

Non-prescriptive definition of

'public authority'

(subject of the NAMA/Anglo cases)

see: NAMA -v- Commissioner for Environmental Information [2013] IEHC 86

(and impending Supreme Court ruling)

Broad definition of

'environmental information'

No fee for request

No fee for internal review

No fee for search and retrieval

€150 for appeal to the OCEI (similar to Information Commissioner)

Section 9 (1) - Exemptions:

International relations

Justice

Commercial sensitivity

IP rights

Section 10 (1)

Emissions component

Obligation to proactive publish environmental info

Should appoint AIE officer

Public interest test is strong

Not widely used

Largely free

Refer to UK/EU decisions

Much wider range of public authorities

Gavin Sheridan

@gavinsblog

thestory.ie