How to make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request

What Freedom of Information is

The Freedom of Information Act 2014 came into effect on 14 October 2014. Under the Freedom of Information Act, everyone is entitled to apply for access to information not made routinely or publicly available.

How to make an FOI request

Before you make a request

The RTB has a FOI Publication Scheme which regularly shares information with the public as part of its normal business activities. Before you make an FOI request, please visit the <Publication Scheme Section> to check that the information you are looking for is not already available.

Making a request

You must apply in writing and indicate that you are seeking the information under the Freedom of Information Act. A copy of the RTB FOI Request Form can be found here. In your correspondence, give as much information as possible about the records you are seeking.

Tell us how you want to receive the records, for example by post or e-mail.  Provide a telephone number so that we can contact you if necessary. Send your completed form by email or post:

• Email: foi@rtb.ie.
• Post: Residential Tenancies Board, 5th floor, O’Connell Bridge House, D’Olier Street Dublin 2 D02 RR99

Charges

There is no charge for accessing personal records, correcting personal information or accessing decisions directly affecting you. For non-personal requests, we may apply a charge for the time spent retrieving and copying the requested material. We will tell you in writing if fees apply. You can contact us for a full list of fees. Payments are payable to the RTB bank account. The FOI Unit will provide these details if necessary.

Information you can access

You have a right to:

• Access records held by the RTB, subject to the provisions of the Act in relation to exempt records.
• Have personal information about you which is held by the RTB corrected, where it is inaccurate, incomplete or misleading.
• Get reasons for decisions made by the RTB which affect you personally.

You are entitled to access:

• Records created since 21 April 2012, although the RTB may release older records if available.
• Your personal information held by the RTB, irrespective of when the record was created.
• A variety of records including paper documents, electronic files and audio-visual materials.

How we process FOI requests

Once we receive your FOI request, we will:

• Acknowledge your request within 10 working days.
• Possibly contact you to understand more about your requesting before we can accept it.
• Provide a decision on your request within 20 working days.
• Contact you and explain if we need more time to complete the decision.

We will review every record located according to your request. We may then decide to:

• Grant the request: you will receive all the records that we found
• Partially grant the request: you will receive some of the records only, and other records may be refused or redacted (blacked out)
• Refuse the request: we do not release any record(s)

We will send the final decision to your request electronically, unless you have asked for printed copies of any records that are released. If we partially grant or refuse the request, we will give reasons for the decision.

If you’re unhappy with the RTB’s decision on your request

If you’re unhappy with our decision, you can request an internal review. The appeal process is a full reassessment of your original FOI request by a more senior member of staff than the original decision-maker. Send you applications for internal review in writing to:

• Email: foi@rtb.ie.
• Post: RTB, FOI Unit, PO Box 12323, Dublin 2, Ireland.

You must pay an internal review fee of €30 (€10 for medical card holders) to appeal a decision. You should send this with your written submission to the RTB.  An internal review will only begin once the payment has been received. If your request is for access to your personal records, there is no fee for an appeal.  After the internal review, if you’re still unhappy with the decision, you can appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner. Visit www.oic.ie for more details.

FOI disclosure log

As part of the FOI Publication Scheme we publish information about FOI requests in our disclosure log. The log does not include any personal information that could identify you.