The Health Service Executive (HSE) did not succeed in an endeavoured High Court appeal against a verdict that allowed RTÉ to have access to documents regarding the adherence of certain HSE staff members to their disclosure duties under the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995. Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger dismissed the objections of the HSE to the Information Commissioner, arguing that those objections, as well as its position in appealing the decision to grant RTÉ the information, lacked both factual ground and validity.
An obligation is imposed by the Ethics Act on certain public body personnel, encompassing those at the HSE, to deliver a statement of interest which encompasses their own interests. This also extends to the interests of their spouses, partners or their children of which they are consciously aware, which can potentially have a significant influence on their professional performance.
Even if there is no specific interest to declare, the HSE mandates that their relevant staff members provide a statement of interest where they would state “nil interest”. The HSE maintains confidentiality of their database of interest statements, following their own governance code.
In May 2022, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014, RTÉ made an appeal for the copies of registers from the HSE which documented the statements of interest put forward by select designated employees from the years 2015 to 2021. This included the identification of individuals who did or did not deliver the necessary interest statements.
The person responsible for freedom of information decisions within the HSE declined the petition and the outcome was supported by subsequent internal reassessment. RTÉ then took the matter further with an appeal to the Information Commissioner who, after carrying out a due process, ruled that the refusal by the HSE to grant access under the Freedom of Information Act was unfounded. The commissioner, however, asserted that certain pieces of information could be redacted.
The HSE, in response, sought a High Court appeal against the commissioner’s ruling. Meanwhile, the national broadcaster, RTÉ, remained as a party to the notice.
In the legal dispute, the HSE contended, among various points, that the commissioner incorrectly determined that RTÉ’s requested information fell within the exceptions to the concept of personal data under the FOI Act, taking into consideration the stipulations of the Ethics Act.
Further, the HSE suggested that the commissioner overlooked their reasoning that the disclosure was not permissible due to the obligations of confidentiality. They maintained that the commissioner did not provide the legally mandated explanation for the judgement.
The commissioner stood against the appeal.
However, Ms Justice Bolger, upon denying the appeal, expressed that the commissioner had indeed taken into account and noted down the oppositions raised by the HSE. These are distinctly encapsulated in the commissioner’s resolution, she conveyed. “The succinctness of this process mirrors the scope and pertinency of the HSE’s proposition,” she noted.
She confirmed that the commissioner’s determination remains effective.