Information Commissioner reports highest number of appeals in ten years

Almost 40,000 requests for information were made to public bodies last year, while the Information Commissioner received its highest number of appeals in the past 10 years, a new report shows.

In 2019 Peter Tyndall, received 613 applications for review of Freedom of Information (FOI) decisions. the highest in the past decade, according to the Officer of the Information Commissioner's annual report.

Of these, just 458 applications were accepted, with the others being deemed invalid. Invalid applications arise mainly due to the failure of applicants to avail of internal review of the initial decision before applying to the commissioner.

Some 39,904 FOI requests were made to all public bodies in 2019 - an increase of 179 per cent over the last ten years.

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Some 39 per cent of all FOI requests were made to government departments or State bodies, while the HSE received 29 per cent of all requests.

More than half of all of FOI requests were made by clients of public bodies while 23 per cent came from journalists.

Five bodies were investigated by the commissioner with regards to compliance with the statutory timeframe of FOI requests, namely the Defence Forces, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, TUSLA – Child and Family Agency and University College Dublin.

Based on the findings of the investigation, Mr Tyndall made specific recommendations to each of the bodies concerned, as well as a suite of general recommendations addressed to all FOI bodies, he said.

One of the cases that the commissioner adjudicated on was a request for access to reports of fire safety assessments conducted on schools built by a particular construction company.

The Department of Education and Skills refused the request on a number of grounds, including that release would harm deliberations on legal proceedings, the issue was sub judice and that the records were commercially sensitive.

The Information Commissioner noted that the fact that there were fire safety concerns in relation to certain schools and that the Department had initiated court proceedings against the construction company was in the public domain. The Commissioner found that the public interest would be better served by release of the records.

The Minister for Education and Skills has appealed the Commissioner's decision to the High Court.

Following the publication of the annual report, the Commissioner issued several recommendations to improve access to information, such as the introduction of an administrative tribunal to reduce the burden on the courts and a closer alignment of the FOI and Access to the Information of the Environment regimes.

He has also called for the revision of the process for resolving disputes as to whether bodies are covered by the act and the extension of the FOI act to all bodies in receipt of “significant” public funding.

Mr Tyndall also commented on the marked increase in the level of resources his office has had to devote to dealing with “frivolous or vexatious” requests and applications for review.

“It is a source of immense frustration for all those charged with operating the FOI regime that such individuals appear to have no regard for the significant administrative burden that this creates,” he added.