Offaly County Council FOI Roadworks August 2026

Published 28/08/2026 By Ross McGann

An FOI consisting of 3 queries regarding a set of road works in North Offaly was sent to Offaly County Council [OCC] on the 22nd of July 2026, the request was initially refused and no clear reason was provided for the refusal. It was re-submitted along with two additional queries relating to a separate set of road works. The FOI was accepted and it took two emails and a complaint to the Chief Executive of OCC before a direct reason was provided for the initial refusal. 

On Tuesday 04th of August an email was received to notify that they estimated the time to complete the 5 requests would be 6 hours, just above the 5 hour limit that would allow them to charge for a request. They would be charging the minimum, €120 and a €24 deposit would need to be paid before they began work on the request. The email was received after the 4:30pm closing of the council’s cash office, but the deposit was paid the following morning at 09:33am, three minutes after opening. 

Confirmation was received from OCC that work had begun on the request. On the 20th of August 2026 an email was received with information regarding payment of the remaining balance, plus printing and copying costs. The remaining €96 balance and €6.04 brought the final payment of €102.04, which was paid at 09:36am on the 21st of August 2026. The files were sent later that day, initially as a one drive folder which required an authentication app to be downloaded, but then sent as attachments via email upon request. 

When the Council initially informed me of the fees I called the Office of Information Commissioner [OIC] and sought their advice. They advised me to pay the deposit “Under Duress” and if OCC followed through with the charge that I was free to contact them and appeal. They also confirmed that in order to appeal a charge for an FOI, unlike appealing the decision of an FOI, there was no charge from the OIC to submit.

They also confirmed that the last appeal against a charge by a public body was a similar case and the appeal was upheld, meaning the fees were returned. 

An appeal to the OIC has now been made in relation to the fee’s charged and it has been accepted as of 27/August/2026 – Further updates on the results of the appeal will be posted once received.