Information Commissioner overturns DOJ FOI decision after 68 missing records surface

Commissioner Peter Tyndall found that the Department mishandled the FOI request submitted by Right to Know in March 2017, The Journal reports.

The transparency group asked for copies of correspondence between then Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and a PR firm called the Communications Clinic.

The request was refused under section 15(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act because the records did not exist or could not be found after “all reasonable steps” had been taken. An internal review by the Department upheld the original finding.

However, the Department later identified 74 items relevant to the request after the Information Commissioner’s investigative team asked if records may have been held outside of its “official” systems.

Of these, 68 were found to fall under the scope of the FOI request.

Commissioner Tyndall has instructed the Department to reconsider the original request and to ask the former Justice Minister whether she may hold additional records that fall under the scope of the request.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: “The Department received notification of the Information Commissioner’s decision yesterday and the content of that decision will now be considered.”