Request contained in Editor’s reply to letter published in ‘Letters to the Editor’—form of request not sufficient for purposes of s 12
A letter from the Department of Social Welfare was published in a newspaper. The Editor’s reply to that letter was published in the same issue.
The postscript to the Editor’s reply stated:
PS We’re interested in how robust your ‘independent review’ of this case is - please take this as an OIA request for a full copy.
For the purposes of section 12 of the OIA this was not considered to constitute a request to a department for specified information under the OIA. It cannot be automatically assumed that publication of a request in a newspaper will be read by departmental officials and understood to be a request for specified information under the OIA. While the OIA does not require requests to be made in writing, it is consistent with the spirit and overall scheme of the OIA that requests should be made directly to an appropriate departmental representative either in writing or verbally.
This case note is published under the authority of the Ombudsmen Rules 1989 opens page in this tab. It sets out an Ombudsman’s view on the facts of a particular case. It should not be taken as establishing any legal precedent that would bind an Ombudsman in future.