Limerick TD has FOI about FOIs refused
A Fianna Fáil TD has said it is “bizarre” that politicians are denied access to the identities of members of the public who submit Freedom of Information requests on their expenses.
Limerick TD Niall Collins was refused an FOI request by the Houses of the Oireachtas after he had asked for the identity of a member of the public who had submitted their own FOI on deputies’ expenses.
Mr Collins said he sought the information out of “curiosity”.
The Oireachtas website contains a disclosure log which outlines all FOI requests it receives, along with a reference number. The identity of the requestor is not revealed, but is categorised as a journalist, private individual, or Oireachtas/public representative.
The log reveals that last month the Oireachtas received an FOI request from a public representative seeking “the name and address of the person who has made an FOI request reference number R1729 in relation to myself”.
The log also shows that the FOI with reference number 1729 was submitted by a private individual who sought the “Monthly register of expenses for 2017, 2018, and 2019 to date for the following TDs: Patrick O Donovan, Niall Collins, Tom Neville”.
The Irish Examiner contacted all three TDs to ask if they had submitted the FOI seeking the identity of the requestor, and Mr Collins confirmed that he had sought this information.
“When the Oireachtas gets an FOI relating to my office, if the request comes from the media or a journalist, the office would tell us this,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“But if it’s a private individual who puts in the FOI request, they don’t tell us who it is.”
Mr Collins said he asked as to the identity of the requestor and was told that Oireachtas officials could not disclose that information. He said it was suggested to him that he should submit his own request.
“Out of curiosity I sent in two FOIs, they were both refused,” said Mr Collins.
I think it is bizarre that someone can put in an FOI about me for information that’s in the public domain anyway, and we don’t know who it is.
Mr Collins said he believes that the identity of an FOI requestor should be put with any request, but that it will not be a reform he will be actively pursuing.“It’s trivial, I don’t lie awake at night thinking about it,” he said.
Section 37 of the FOI Act 2014 states “a head shall refuse to grant an FOI request if, in the opinion of the head, access to the record concerned would involve the disclosure of personal information”.
