- Skip Navigation |
- Sitemap |
- Accessibility Statement
- | Text Size: A |
- A |
- A
- About Us
- FOI Acts & Regulations
- Prescribed Public Bodies
- Make an FOI Request
- Review by the Commissioner
- Decisions of the Commissioner
- Court Judgments
- Publications
- Media and Speeches
- Reference
- Student Section
- Latest News
Lo-Call: 1890 223030
Fax: (01) 639 5674
Email: info@oic.ie
Section 16 Manual
5.28 Further enquiries
Normally no further enquiries are warranted until replies have been received.
5.29 However where further enquiries are considered necessary, the enquiry should be comprehensive enough to enable a decision to be made by the Commissioner on the basis of the reply and any submissions made. It is recognised that this is not possible in many cases. This is because an important aspect of any review is establishing all the relevant facts and information. This can involve testing assertions made by the parties. It can also require the Investigator to raise matters which the public body has not covered adequately in its submissions or which have been raised by the requester.
5.30 Many of the exemptions in the Act require the exercise of judgement by the public body - for example, judging whether a particular harm may reasonably be expected to occur. By and large Investigators should not engage in debate with public bodies about the merits of such exercises of judgement. They should seek to establish the relevant facts and to understand fully the reasoning of the public body.
5.31 In summary, Investigators should only make further enquiries of the public body if this is needed in order to establish all the relevant facts and to understand fully the reasoning of the public body.
5.32 Sometimes, a public body may raise matters in the course of the review for the first time. If it appears to the Investigator that such matters are relevant to the review and might be influential in persuading the Commissioner to uphold the decision of the public body, then the applicant should be informed of these matters and told why the Investigator considers them relevant. The applicant should be offered an opportunity to respond but, generally, should not be provided with a copy of the submissions of the public body. This is because care must be taken that the provisions of section 43(3) are fully observed. These require the Commissioner to take all reasonable precautions to prevent the disclosure of information contained in an exempt record or information which if included in a record would cause the record to be an exempt record, or information as to whether a record does or does not exist where the public body is required by the Act not to disclose this information.
