Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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295. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is satisfied that public bodies are compliant with their obligations for disclosing procurement information, in light of the Information Commissioner's ruling (details supplied), if he will be reminding this body of their obligations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35741/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's assessment is that, in general, and consistent with the approach adopted since FOI first came into effect in 1998 commercial state bodies should not be subject to FOI requirements. The rationale for this approach is the risk of the uneven competitive market environment that would be created in circumstances that commercial state bodies operating in a competitive market were subject to FOI but their privately-owned market competitors were not. This would be expected to have an adverse impact on the commercial position of the state body in question, which would not be in the public interest or consistent with the need to safeguard the State's economic and financial interests. Moreover, very significant information is available on the activities of these commercial companies reflecting their obligations under company law, the information they provide to Government Departments and relevant sectoral regulators which is available for release under FOI or otherwise.

A list of Commercial State Bodies that are excluded from the Freedom of Information Act 2014 is contained at Schedule 1, part 2 of Act. The list includes bodies such as airport authorities, transport, port and Electricity Supply Board, as well as entities involved with tourism, trade and other commercial activities. As such, Dublin Airport Authority is an exempt Agency and is not subject to the 2014 Act.

Freedom of Information requests are decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the contents of the particular records concerned. Therefore, it should not be taken that requests for similar types of records should automatically result in the same outcome, as the contents of the records may well be markedly different.

Approximately four out of every five FOI requests decided on are granted. Reviews are available where a requester is dissatisfied with the outcome of their request. However, these are availed of in approximately 3% of cases annually, while an independent review by the Information Commissioner is sought in slightly over 1% of cases. Key indicators remain consistent from year to year.

It is the role of the Information Commissioner and the Courts to reach authoritative determinations on the interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 including application of the exemption relating to commercially sensitive information. Where a party is dissatisfied with a decision made by a public body on a request, under the 2014 Act they may seek an independent review by the Commissioner of the decision. A further statutory appeal is available to the High Court from a decision of the Commissioner.