Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform

Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed)

5:30 pm

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to go through a few of the subsections with the Minister, but I have not tabled amendments to delete them. I just want to discuss them. As I looked at them, I thought there was good stuff in them if I was an officer or an official who just did not want to give out any information. We have talked about section 15(1)(c) which states that a request may be refused if:


In the opinion of the head, granting the request would, by reason of the number or nature of the records concerned or the nature of the information concerned, require the retrieval and examination of such number of records or an examination of such kind of the records concerned as to cause a substantial and unreasonable interference with or disruption of work (including disruption of work in a particular functional area) of the FOI body concerned.
In a very small team an FOI request that is not mammoth could cause what the person in charge might consider to be interference or disruption of the work of the team. Let us say it was a very small team and the request took up a few days of its time. Are there guidelines on what constitutes a substantial and unreasonable interference with or disruption of work?

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