The High Court has refused an appeal by Maurice D. Landers against the Information Commissioner’s decision to uphold the NTMA’s refusal to provide further internal audit plan records for the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) for 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Commissioner had concluded that the records could not be found or did not exist after reasonable searches.
Mr Justice Cian Ferriter ruled on 15 March 2022 that the appeal disclosed no error of law. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the appeal could be brought only on a point of law. Landers argued that the Commissioner’s decision was irrational because, he said, evidence showed that additional audit plans existed.
The NTMA had already released three PwC audit plan presentations, dated 2009, 2010 and 2011. When Landers sought an internal review, the NTMA distinguished those presentations from separate “internal audit plans” and refused access to further records under section 15(1)(a), which permits refusal where a record does not exist or cannot be found after all reasonable steps have been taken.
In response to questions from the Commissioner’s office, the NTMA described manual and electronic searches by staff considered likely to have been involved, including a former NPRF Commission Secretary and former staff. It said it understood that PwC did not submit final or formal audit plans after the presentations were agreed at audit committee level. The NTMA also said the presentations encompassed the scope of PwC’s audit work and that it did not believe separate plans had been received and later destroyed.
Landers relied on wording in a separate Chartered Accountants Ireland decision referring to a copy of an internal audit plan presented to and agreed with the NPRF Commission and the NTMA. The judge found that the wording could be read as referring to the presentations already supplied. He said there was no objective basis in the CAI communications to conclude that other undisclosed plans existed.
The court’s task was to assess whether material could justify the Commissioner’s decision, not to decide afresh whether further records existed. Justice Ferriter found that the NTMA’s detailed search account provided ample material for the Commissioner to conclude that reasonable steps had been taken and that no additional plans existed. The judge also said the Commissioner’s discretionary powers to seek records were not an issue on the appeal, and found the requests for the court to direct PwC and CAI to provide documents outside the statutory appeal process.
The appeal was refused, leaving the Commissioner’s decision in place.