Here at thestory.ie we appeal lots of decisions of public authorities to the Information Commissioner. Of course the one that has taken the longest is our appeal against NAMA and Anglo Irish Bank in relation to environmental information (via AIE not FOI). We are awaiting judgment from the High Court in relation to that appeal.
However many of these appeals often result in what are known as ‘settlements’. These are situations where the OIC acts as a neutral arbiter, and the requester and public authority come to an agreement on the release of information.
But in situations where no agreement can be reached, the OIC must make a formal decision, about who is right and who is wrong with regards to exemptions being applied to information releases. On this occasion no agreement could be reached, as the IDA insisted that they were not in a position to release the information I had requested.
Following a series of submissions, and again with the help of Fred Logue, the Information Commissioner has ordered the IDA to release data I had requested. This process in total cost €240 (a figure we should be ashamed of, as one of the only countries in the world that charges for this type of process). It also took a large amount of time – I sent this request for information in January 2011.
The issue of the release centred mainly on Section 28 – Personal Information. This is one of the most oft used exemptions in Irish FOI and is often misapplied by public authorities (indeed I have just submitted another appeal to the OIC which again centres on Section 28). The long and short of it was this: I wanted to know who leased property to the IDA. I was given some names and the names of some companies, but not all names. The IDA decided that releasing the names of individuals who lease property to the IDA would be a breach of their privacy rights and that the public interest would not be served by their release.
We disagreed and argued strongly that this was wrong on a number of levels. In their preliminary view several months ago, the OIC agreed with the IDA that the information was potentially personal. After 2 years and lengthy submissions, the OIC has agreed with our position, insisting that:
“…whilst I empathise with the affected third parties in relation to any concems they might have over their personal safety in particular, I consider that the public interest in optimising openness and transparency in relation to the use of public funds outweighs, on balance, the public interest in protecting the right to privacy of the individuals in question.”
Here is the decision in full and the submission we made in relation to it. For those of you who have Section 28 applied to your requests, it is worth reading in full. We will publish the data released as soon as we have it.
This was our submission to the OIC:
Continue reading “Information Commissioner orders release of IDA data”