After a four-year transparency battle, the IDA has been told it must disclose documents on a land deal for a proposed Apple data centre.
In 2021, Right to Know sought copies of correspondence between the development agency and the tech giant on discussions about sites for data centres.
The request was later refined with the IDA identifying a 33-page valuation report, which they refused to disclose.
The case was appealed to the Commissioner for Environmental Information (CEI) but placed on hold pending the outcome of a separate High Court case.
It was later discovered that there was more than one document within the scope of the review.
The CEI rejected the IDA’s claims that the records were exempt under the AIE Regulations as either relating to confidential proceedings or commercially sensitive.
It said the land deal in question took place more than ten years ago and that any valuations carried out then were out of date.
The decision maker wrote: “It is not apparent to me how such harms might arise when the valuation and indeed the sale took place over a decade ago, and property/land values have changed substantially over that time.
“I consider any prospective buyer is likely to arrange for their own due diligence checks to be carried out.”
You can read the full decision here: https://ocei.ie/en/ombudsman-decision/9cd38-mr-ken-foxe-right-to-know-clg-and-ida-ireland/