I refer to the following request, which you have made under the Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003 for records held by this Department/Body:

[Quote request wording here]

IN THE CASE OF A REQUEST FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION USE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH:
Your request dated [date] was received by this Department/Body on [date]. [Decision maker's name] will be the officer handling your request. [DM] may be contacted by telephone on [number] should you have any questions or concerns about your request.

IN THE CASE OF A REQUEST FOR NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION USE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH:
Your request dated [date] and fee of €15 [€10] (delete as applicable) was received by this Department on [date]. [Decision maker's name] will be the officer handling your request. [DM] may be contacted by telephone on [number] should you have any questions or concerns about your request.

Some of the records, which you have sought, are not held by us but are held by another Departments/Office. These records are: [description of records].

Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you further with your request for these records. We have detailed below, however, the address and contact details for the [Department/Office] which hold these records:


[Name of Dept/Office] [Address details for the making of a request] [Contact details for person handling the matter there]


If you wish to seek access to the records held by the above, you will need to make a new and separate FOI request to the above.

As regards the records held by this Department/Body, a final decision on your request would normally be sent to you within 4 weeks. A week is defined in the Act to mean 5 consecutive weekdays, excluding Saturdays and public holidays (Sundays are also excluded, as they are not weekdays). This means that you can expect to receive your decision by [date].

There are some limited situations under the FOI Act which could mean that the period for a final decision may be longer than the normal four weeks. If this occurs in your request, [DM] will promptly advise you in writing.

Should our final decision not reach you on time, please feel free to call [DM] to discuss any problems that may have arisen.

If you have not heard from us once the allotted time has expired, you are automatically entitled to appeal to this Department/Body for a review of the matter. This review proceeds on the legal basis that the initial request is considered to be refused once the specified time for responding to it has expired. The review is a full and new examination of the matter carried out by a more senior member of staff of this Department/Body.

In the event that you need to make such an appeal, you can do so by writing to the Freedom of Information Unit, [address] or alternatively by sending an e-mail to [address] You should state that you are appealing because an initial decision was not sent to you within the time permitted. In that event, you would normally have 20 working days (after the initial decision should have been sent to you) in which to make the appeal. This Department/body will, however, allow the appeal to be made late in appropriate circumstances.