X and the Department of Social Protection (FOI Act 2014)

In conducting this review I have had regard to the Department's decision; the Department's communications with the applicant and with this Office; the applicant's communications with the Department and with this Office; the content of the withheld records, provided to this Office by the Department for the purposes of this review and to the provisions of the FOI Act. Scope of the Review

The Department provided this Office with two files of records. File A contains the records which it released to the applicant. File B contains the records which it refused under section 31(1)(a) of the FOI Act.

That said, under section 22 of the FOI Act, my remit in this case is confined to reviewing whether the Department was justified in refusing access to the records concerned.

In circumstances where the applicant claims that further records exist, it is appropriate for me to consider section 15(1)(a) of the FOI Act. Section 15(1)(a) provides that access to records may be refused if the records concerned do not exist or cannot be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain their whereabouts have been taken.

The applicant submits that numerous discussions appear to have taken place between certain named members of staff, yet it has not been provided with any minute, notes or other record of such exchanges. It does not accept that a decision-maker in a public body would not document the interactions concerned. Furthermore, it submits that records transmitting legal advice onto a certain named member of staff must exist.