Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act, 1997, (FOI Act) was implemented in Local Authorities on the 21st October, 1998.  This Act was introduced to:

• Enable members of the public to obtain access to official information, to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy.
• Enable persons to have personal information relating to them, in the possession of public bodies, corrected.
• Provide for the right of access to records held by public bodies.
• Provide for necessary exceptions to that right.
• Provide for assistance to persons to enable them to exercise that right.
• Provide for the independent review, both of decisions of public bodies relating to that right and of the operation of this Act generally (including the proceedings of such bodies pursuant to this Act) and for those purposes, to provide for the establishment of the Office of Information Commissioner and to define its functions.
• Provide for the publication by public bodies of certain information about them, relevant to the purposes of this Act.
• Amend the Official Secrets Act, 1963.
• Provide for related matters.

A further Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2003 which makes some amendments to the original Act and allowed for the introduction by regulation of application fees for requests and appeals. The FOI legislation is now known as the Freedom of Information Acts, 1997 & 2003.

The Freedom of Information Acts is to give members of the public access to information held by this Authority, to the greatest extent possible, in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Acts, 1997 & 2003, and consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy of the individual.