‘Unacceptable’ number of requests for access to environmental information being denied by public bodies

Commissioner for Environmental Information Ger Deering said the situation is "unacceptable".

Caroline O'Doherty, Environment Correspondent

State bodies are wrongly withholding environmental information from the public according to an appeals office that overturned a remarkable 92pc of refusals to disclose.

The Department of Agriculture, Coillte and county councils were among the bodies most frequently criticised for refusing formal requests under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) legislation.

Commissioner for Environmental Information, Ger Deering, said his office finalised 136 appeals last year and ruled in favour of the person seeking the information in 92pc of the cases.

In some cases, their requests had been refused because the body involved said they did not have the information even though they did and it was found by Mr Deering’s staff when they investigated.

In other cases, the body did not respond to the requester within the required time so it was unknown whether they had the information or not.

Sometimes the information was refused without explanation, although an explanation is required by law.

On other occasions information was denied with reference to commercial sensitivity or other privacy provisions which did not apply under AIE.

Mr Deering said the situation was “unacceptable”.

“The purpose of the AIE regulations and regime is to enable members of the public to know and understand what is happening in the environment around them,” he said in his annual report.

“Timely and easy access to environmental information is essential to assist the public to participate in environmental decision-making.

“We issued 136 formal decisions in 2023. In 125 cases the public authority’s decision was annulled.

“This continuing trend of high annulment rates remains a cause for concern.”

AIE has a broad definition of what constitutes environmental information which can extend to the built environment and transport.

Two of the cases highlighted in the report relate to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

It refused to release an air traffic controllers report on the fatal crash of the Rescue 116 helicopter at Blacksod Bay in 2017.

It also denied a request for reports on sightings of unidentified aerial objects in the west of Ireland.

In this case, the IAA refused to engage with the commissioner’s staff on the issue.

Mr Deering annulled both IAA decisions and directed the authority to deal with the information requests.

In total, 351 new appeals were received by his office last year and he had 373 cases on hand at the end of the year.