Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source
I do not believe it is legal for anyone to destroy records that are the subject of an FOI request. I am aware of one of the provisions in the Private Members' Bill to which the Deputy refers that provides for a referral to SIPO. One of the issues that arose when we examined that was it was not clear what SIPO would do with that or what powers it currently has. That issue could not just be dealt with amending the freedom of information legislation. One would also need to look at the accompanying ethics legislation and the legislation underpinning the workings of SIPO. That just gives an example of the complexity of it. Certainly, to my knowledge, no one is exempt from the requirement that a person should not destroy records to deliberately avoid FOI requests.
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