From the Office of the Information Commissioner’s annual report for 2016
Today.
Information Commissioner Peter Tyndall released the Office of the Information Commissioner’s annual report for 2016 – a year which saw requests to An Garda Síochána rise from 183 in 2015 to 459 in 2016, representing a 150 per cent increase.
In the report, Mr Tyndall also says:
I am disappointed to report that my office has noted ongoing and, in some cases, increasing examples of some public bodies failing to meet the statutory requirements of the FOI Act.
For example, later in my report I comment on the number of occasions that public bodies have not responded to FOI requests within statutory timeframes and on the fact that my office noted an all-time high of instances where the request was deemed to have been refused by the public body in the absence of a timely decision. I also report on several instances where my office had to issue statutory notices to ensure compliance with the Act.
Specifically.
In regards to the OIC – under Section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act – being able to order a public body to provide it with any information it believes to be relevant for a review.
It issued two such Section 45 notices to TUSLA, the Child and Family Agency.
In relation to this…
Mr Tyndall writes:
TUSLA was requested to provide copies of the subject records for a review, on 14 April 2016. Despite a further telephone reminder the records were not forwarded to my Office. On 4 May 2016, we issued a section 45 notice to the Chief Executive of TUSLA and the records in question were delivered almost three weeks later.
And in relation to the second case, Mr Tyndall writes…
My office wrote to TUSLA on 13 June 2016 and requested copies of the relevant subject records within ten working days. On 27 June an incomplete set of records was received.
On 15 July, my Office issued a section 45 notice to the Chief Executive, again requesting the relevant records. While TUSLA delivered a further set of records on 29 July, they were not the ones requested. As a result, on 8 August, we took the unusual step of issuing a second section 45 notice to the Chief Executive. We received the correct records on 11 August, two months after the original request.
Read the report in full here
