Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Role and Functions: Pensions Ombudsman

4:45 pm

Mr. Paul Kenny:

Absolutely. My view is that we are adequately covered in terms of how the offices are run. We are completely subject to freedom of information in respect of everything except the actual investigation files. Those files contain very sensitive personal information about people's health, and everything including their PPS number and beyond is contained therein. We also receive commercial information from bodies in jurisdiction, which is also very sensitive from their point of view and should not, therefore, be accessible to the public. I am very happy that the investigation files should remain completely confidential. Apart from anything else, the job of redacting information from some of those files, if they had to be issued, would be impossible.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.