LIMERICK City and County Council, the University of Limerick, and St John’s Hospital were among the local bodies receiving the greatest number of Freedom of Information requests last year, taking in 263, 109, and 169 respectively.
That’s according to the latest report from Information Commissioner Ger Deering who has hit out at a nationwide over-reliance on external legal advisers by a small number of public bodies when responding to requests for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
In his annual report for 2023, published this past week, Mr Deering highlighted a growing trend by a small number of public bodies to ‘contract out’ their decision-making on FOI requests to external legal advisers.
Mr Deering said that this trend was concerning as it can result in the public not being given access to records to the “greatest extent possible” as provided for under the FOI Act.
“I have seen a number of cases where this practice has resulted in a public body using a broad range of exemptions to refuse an FOI request – some of which were tenuous at best.”
The Information Commissioner also highlighted instances where he was forced to issue formal notices to some public bodies after they failed in their obligation to supply him with the information he needed to review the body’s decision on a FOI request (known as a ‘Section 45 notice’).
A total of eight such notices were issued, though none of them to a Limerick body.
Four notices were issued to Cork City Council in 2023, with one each to Children’s Health Ireland, the Defence Forces, the Department of Health and Trinity College Dublin.
In the case of Trinity College, the Commissioner said he came close to issuing formal legal proceedings against the university.
37,437 FOI requests were made last year to public bodies with 665 requests for reviews to the Information Commissioner.
According to Mr Deering’s report, Limerick City and County Council was the local authority with the fourth largest number of FOI requests received last year, taking in 263 requests. It followed behind Dublin City Council (757), Cork City Council (343), and Cork County Council (271).
The University of Limerick was the third-level institution with the third highest number of requests in 2023 (109), behind University College Galway (124) and University College Dublin (116). The Technological University of the Shannon had 20, while Mary Immaculate College received just seven.
