As featured in the latest IRN a freedom of information request, made of Dublin City Council by the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association (IFESA) has been ruled "Frivolous and Vexatious" by the Office of the Information Commissioner.
Many employers will have received FOI requests in the past and it is useful to note that where they are deemed as being unreasonable there is a mechanism to refuse these requests.
It was agreed by the Information Commissioner and the Council that the request had been made with the aim of forcing the Council to liaise with and recognise the IFESA. In support of this the Commissioner noted that in a letter to the council it stated "if the council wishes to conduct normal industrial relations then we would have no need to use the FOI Act."
The IRN notes that the IFESA was formed in 2010 but has not been recognised for collective bargaining purposes by Dublin City Council, which is the employer of the Dublin City Fire Brigade. When looking at requests and assessing if they are vexatious or frivolous, the commissioner had a number of non-exhaustive factors they would base this on as with Section 10 (e) of the Act;
- Are the number of requests excessive
- are the requests excessively broad and varied in scope or unusually detailed
- have the requests been made for 'nuisance value'
- is the intent of the requester to harass the public body
The office of the commissioner noted that the requests were excessively broad and unusually detailed and were submitted over a very short time period. It was concluded that any reasonable person would see these as excessively burdensome, such as requests for;
- records of annual Dublin Civil Defence plans and funding over a 10 year period
- numerous Civil Defence and all Dublin Fire Brigade Personnel
- the ages and dates of issue of certain elements of PPE
- how often these were repaired or laundered and visually inspected
- daily checks of the ladder set on a specific vehicle
The claims were held to have been "manifestly unreasonable requests" and the use of the FOI Act "in such a manner to be abuse of the right of access, in which case the requests would appear to be vexatious"
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