Mr Ken Foxe and Health Service Executive [2022] IEIC OIC-107082 (20 January 2022)

Mr Ken Foxe and Health Service Executive [2022] IEIC OIC-107082 (20 January 2022)

The HSE was justified in refusing access to the requested information under section 15(1)(c) of the FOI Act because fulfilling the request would require substantial manual examination of a large number of records, causing substantial and unreasonable interference with the work of the hospitals' finance departments. However, the HSE must release details of purchase orders processed electronically by three of the hospitals, as this can be done without such interference.

Citation
[2022] IEIC OIC-107082
Parties
Applicant: Mr Ken Foxe; Respondent: Health Service Executive
Jurisdiction
Ireland
Judgment Date
20 January 2022
Procedural Posture
FOI Review / Decision on Review by Information Commissioner
Outcome
Request partially granted; refusal varied
Legal Topics
Refusal of FOI Request, Section 15(1)(c) FOI Act, Publication Scheme Compliance, Public Sector Transparency
Freedom of Information Administrative Law Refusal of FOI Request Section 15(1)(c) FOI Act Publication Scheme Compliance Public Sector Transparency

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Parties

Mr Ken Foxe

Applicant

Health Service Executive

Respondent

Procedural Posture

FOI Review / Decision on Review by Information Commissioner

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether the HSE was justified in refusing access under section 15(1)(c) of the FOI Act to details of all purchase orders over €20,000 for specified periods for four hospitals, on the ground that processing the request would cause substantial and unreasonable interference with or disruption of its work

Ratio Decidendi

The HSE was justified in refusing access to the requested information under section 15(1)(c) of the FOI Act because fulfilling the request would require substantial manual examination of a large number of records, causing substantial and unreasonable interference with the work of the hospitals' finance departments. However, the HSE must release details of purchase orders processed electronically by three of the hospitals, as this can be done without such interference.

Court Disposition

Request partially granted; refusal varied

Orders

  • HSE to release details of electronically processed purchase orders over €20,000 for the period in question from Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise, and Naas General Hospital.
  • Refusal of access to manually processed purchase orders upheld.