Section 18 | Form of requests

(1) A request for access must be made in the prescribed form to the information officer of the public body concerned at his or her address or fax number or electronic mail address. 

(2) The form for a request of access prescribed for the purposes of subsection (1) must at least require the requester concerned – 

(a) to provide sufficient particulars to enable an official of the public body concerned to identify – 

(i) the record or records requested; and 

(ii) the requester; 

(b) to indicate which applicable form of access referred to in section 29(2) is required; 

(c) to state whether the record concerned is preferred in a particular language; 

(d) to specify a postal address or fax number of the requester in the Republic; 

(e) if, in addition to a written reply, the requester wishes to be informed of the decision on the request in any other manner, to state that manner and the necessary particulars to be so informed; and 

(f) if the request is made on behalf of a person, to submit proof of the capacity in which the requester is making the request, to the reasonable satisfaction of the information officer. 

(3) 

(a) An individual who because of illiteracy or a disability is unable to make a request for access to a record of a public body in accordance with subsection (1), may make that request orally. 

(b) The information officer of that body must reduce that oral request to writing in the prescribed form and provide a copy thereof to the requester.