Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 3 Apr 2003

Vol. 564 No. 3

Written Answers - Freedom of Information.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

100 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the instances in the past five years where a record relating to the deliberative process of a public body under his Department was released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9298/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

Section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act provides that decision-makers may refuse access to records if they are satisfied that the deliberative process is ongoing and that, in their opinion, the granting of the request would be contrary to the public interest. Such records would not be released by my Department if it were considered contrary to the public interest to do so. To date, no requests refused by my Department under section 20 of the Act have been released on appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

101 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the instances in which records relating to a committee appointed by the Government to advise it on a particular issue have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9313/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

It was not possible in the time available to search each freedom of information request individually on all records released. It appears from a preliminary examination of releases of information in my Department, using relevant references, that no records relating to a committee appointed by the Government to advise it on a particular issue have been released under the Freedom of Information Act either by my Department or on appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

102 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the instances in which records relating to security, defence or international relations have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9343/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

No records relating to security, defence or international relations have been released under the Freedom of Information Act either by my Department or on appeal to the Information Commissioner where it was considered by my Department to be contrary to the public interest.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

103 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the instances where the existence of information which was either obtained in confidence, or commercially sensitive was released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9329/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

It was not possible, in the time available, to search each freedom of information request. It appears from a preliminary examination of files, however, that there were no cases where a declaration of the existence of a record obtained in confidence or commercially sensitive was made which was considered by my Department to be contrary to the public interest. The Freedom of Information Act requires decision-makers to refuse access to certain records obtained in confidence or commercially sensitive, under sections 26 and 27 respectively, unless they believe that the public interest would, on balance, be better served by granting than by refusing to grant the request. Records satisfying the conditions laid down in sections 26 or 27 of the Act would not be released, therefore, if a decision maker believed that the public interest would not, on balance, be better served by granting rather than refusing the request.

Only one request refused by my Department under section 26 has been released on appeal to the Information Commissioner. In that instance, the commissioner found that the conditions set out in section 26(1)(a) had not been met. There has also been one instance where a decision by my Department to release records was overturned by reference to section 27 of the Act on appeal by a third party to the Information Commissioner.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

104 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the instances where communications between Ministers in relation to a particular matter which has been submitted to the Government for their consideration have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9358/03]

Minister for Agriculture and Food (Mr. Walsh)

It was not possible in the time available to search each freedom of information request individually on all records released. A preliminary examination of releases of information in my Department, using relevant references, shows that no records containing communications between Ministers in relation to a particular matter, which has been submitted to the Government for its consideration, have been released by my Department or on appeal to the Information Commissioner, where it was considered by my Department to be contrary to the public interest.

Question No. 105 answered with Question No. 23.