Freedom of Information

• Life Sciences
• Energy
• Healthcare
• Built Environment

We advise on the following issues:

• Making and processing FOI and AIE requests including internal reviews
• Appeals to the Information Commissioner, Commissioner for Environmental Information and the Courts
• Information-related Policies and Governance, including management and retention of data
• Compliance with the FOI Code of Practice
• Preparation and maintenance of Publication Schemes

• Advising a public authority in an AIE appeal to the High Court on a point of law against a consequential decision of the Commissioner for Environmental Information in which the Commissioner did not uphold the authority’s refusal to process requests in cases of multiple requesters where the requesters did not provide, or confirm, their names or addresses.
• Advising a commercial semi-State entity in a High Court reference by the Commissioner for Environmental Information of several questions of law arising in an appeal before the Commissioner, raising a point of general importance to the interpretation and application of exceptions under the AIE Regulations as to the true scope of certain exceptions and whether particular public authorities can invoke them.
• Successfully argued before the Commissioner for Environmental Information that, unlike the Electricity Supply Board itself, a particular commercial subsidiary of the Board was not a “public authority” under the AIE Regulations. Therefore, a request for environmental information held by the subsidiary did not need to be entertained. The Commissioner’s decision is published here.
• Submitted detailed representations on behalf of a major technology company to a Government Department advocating the non-release of more intrusive information under the Freedom of Information Act than that which had already been published under another statutory disclosure-requirement.
• Advised an international organisation on voluntarily providing to an FOI body an audit report concerning complaints against its Irish branch. Also advised on a subsequent FOI request seeking access to that report, and successfully prevented its release in an appeal before the Information Commissioner.
• Advised a social media company on its submissions to a Government Department, arguing that some of its records, which had previously been provided to the Department, were exempt from release under FOI as they contained confidential, commercially sensitive and personal information, as well as information relating to public safety.
• Represented the Information Commissioner in successfully defending High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings against the Commissioner’s decision concerning a requester’s FOI requests for records relating to himself and his former step-daughter. The Commissioner’s decision was that the public interest in granting the request did not outweigh the public interest in protecting the privacy rights of the individuals (apart from the requester) to whom the information related. The Court of Appeal held that that there was no error of law by the High Court, and that the request for access was motivated by the requester’s own private interests.