The Freedom of Information legislation was introduced:

• to enable members of the public to obtain access to official information, to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy,
• to enable persons to have personal information relating to them, in the possession of public bodies, corrected,
• to provide for the right of access to records held by public bodies,
• to provide for necessary exceptions to that right,
• to provide for assistance to persons to enable them to exercise this right,
• to provide for the independent review, both of decisions of public bodies relating to that right and of the operation of the Acts generally (including the proceedings of such bodies pursuant to this Act) and for those purposes, to provide for the establishment of the Office of Information Commissioner and to define its functions,
• to provide for the publication by public bodies of certain information about them, relevant to the purposes of this Act,
• to amend the Official Secrets Act, 1963,

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Acts, 1997 and 2003, established three new statutory rights:

• a legal right for each person to access information held by a local authority about them.
• a legal right for each person to have official information relating to him/herself amended where it is incomplete, incorrect or misleading.
• a legal right to obtain reasons for decisions affecting oneself.

To facilitate the public in accessing this information, Section 15 & 16 of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997 require each public body to prepare, publish and make available information to themselves, the information they hold, and the internal rules and guidelines used in decision making.

This manual lists the rules, guidelines and precedents used by each section of this Local Authority in carrying out its various functions. These functions and a general description of the services provided for the for the public and how they may be availed of are set out in a manual published in accordance with Section 15 of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997 which is also available for inspection.

Copies of the rules, guidelines and precedents, appropriate to each section as listed in this manual are available for inspection at that section free of charge.