Written answers

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Department of Finance

Freedom of Information

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

122. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason documents released to this Deputy under the Freedom of Information Acts concerning the sale of a company (details supplied) were so heavily redacted; if he will provide a page by page justification for each redaction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16654/15]

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I believe the Deputy is referring to documents released under a Freedom of Information Act request made by another member of the public for correspondence, reports and memos regarding the company referred to in the question, which were made available to the Deputy in fulfilment of my commitment to do so in response to Parliamentary Question number 12628/15.

There were various reasons that the documents released under that particular FOI request were redacted. The reason supporting the vast majority of redactions in this instance was that the redacted information was not relevant to the request which had asked specifically for information relating to the sale of Siteserv. Other reasons for redaction as set out by the deciding officer, included that information contained in the records was obtained in confidence and that some records contained commercially sensitive information. I believe my officials have provided you with a copy of this original FOI request, setting out the original question asked and the schedule to the documents released which includes the basis for their refusal by the deciding officer in line with the FOI Act 2014.

As the Deputy is aware these documents, along with others, have since been released under a subsequent FOI request which posed a broader question. This FOI request asked for documents relating to meetings held with IBRC and was not specific to the company referred to in the question. As a result the documents released under this request are less redacted as more material is relevant to the question.  The documents released under this request, including the schedule of documents and the reason for any refusal or redaction, are available on the Department of Finance website through the following link: .

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.