Freedom of Information Support Officer

Job Description

We are Uisce Éireann. Every day, we are responsible for the delivery of secure, safe, and sustainable water services for the people of Ireland. As Ireland's national regulated water utility, our vision is a sustainable Ireland where water is respected and protected, for the planet and all the lives it supports.

Our purpose at Uisce Éireann is to rise to the challenge of delivering transformative water services that enable communities to thrive. That means we are proud to take on the responsibility of protecting our water supply and passing on a safe and secure water system to a rapidly growing population and empowering Ireland's social and economic growth.

We are passionate about empowering our people, enabling them to make a positive impact on communities across Ireland. We are guided by a shared vision and purpose, grounded in values that define who we are and shape how we work, where we deliver for customers and communities, we work better together, we do the right thing, we aim high, and we keep each other safe. Our behaviours define how we interact, communicate, and succeed together. These values and behaviours apply to each one of us, across every role, location, and level.

Our goal is to attract and develop skilled and talented people from diverse backgrounds, who bring a dynamic range of expertise and insights to our work. With a strong, values-driven workforce, we ensure Uisce Éireann can continue advancing Ireland's water services and meeting the needs of the communities we serve for generations to come.

The Role:

The Legal function provides the organisation with the necessary legal expertise and support required by the business to meet its day-to-day business needs and legal and regulatory obligations. This includes advising the business in specialised matters, managing litigation matters, reviewing and providing input to legal documentation including policies and contracts, and advising on regulatory matters.

Within the Legal function, the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) Officer (the FOI/AIE Officer) has responsibility for Uisce Éireann's compliance under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007-2018.

Reporting to the FOI/AIE Officer, the Freedom of Information and Access to the Environment Support Officer will provide dedicated administrative, coordination and quality-assurance support in relation to FOI and AIE requests. The FOI/AIE Support Officer will play a key role in logging, tracking, coordinating and progressing FOI and AIE requests, liaising with Decision Makers across the business, preparing schedules and correspondence, supporting redaction workflows and maintaining robust records and publication practices.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

FOI / AIE Case Administration and Coordination:

• Assist the FOI/AIE Officer in the processing of all FOI and AIE requests (including appeals) made to Uisce Éireann.
• Log, acknowledge and track all FOI and AIE requests on the approved case management system.
• Monitor and manage statutory deadlines, extensions and internal timelines to support on-time compliance.
• Maintain complete, accurate and auditable FOI/AIE case files.
• Coordinate inputs from Decision Makers across Directorates, tracking responses and following up on outstanding returns.
• Proactively identify risks to statutory compliance (including delays, incomplete returns or scope clarification issues) and escalate concerns to the FOI/AIE Officer in a timely manner.

Records, Scheduling and Correspondence Support:

Assist in the collation and organisation of records returned by business areas, including removal of obvious duplicates and out-of-scope material under instruction and guidance, using approved technology tools if appropriate.

• Prepare and maintain schedules of records in accordance with FOI and AIE legislative requirements.
• Draft and format decision correspondence, acknowledgements and extension notices from approved templates.
• Compile final release packs for issue under the direction of the Decision Maker, FOI/AIE Officer and Legal team.
• Responsibility for maintaining version control of schedules and release packs.
• Provide administrative support for clarification requests and revised scopes (under direction).

Redaction and Quality Assurance:

• Support redaction workflows using approved tools, applying redactions under instruction.
• Tag exemptions and ensure rationale is consistently captured and documented.
• Carry out quality checks to support consistency with previous disclosures, publication logs and approved decision-making approaches.

Publication and Records Management:

• Support maintenance of the FOI Log and the Uisce Éireann Model Publication Scheme as instructed and in line with statutory codes of practice and internal governance requirements.
• Assist with preparation and publication of required statistics and disclosures, including quarterly updates where applicable.
• Support the development and maintenance of clear filing, retention and document management practices for FOI/AIE records.
• Administrative support for internal reviews, appeals and internal assurance exercises, including file collation and chronology preparation.

Stakeholder Liaison and Support

• Liaise on a day-to-day basis with the FOI/AIE Officer.
• Engage regularly with Decision Makers across all Directorates to support timely and effective FOI/AIE processing, including structured follow-ups and status tracking.
• Coordinate, where required, with Legal (including Litigation), IT, the Data Protection Office and Corporate Affairs in relation to FOI/AIE matters.
• Supporting delivery of FOI/AIE training materials, guidance notes or process updates.
• Assisting in identifying recurring issues or inefficiencies in FOI/AIE handling, and assist in the streamlining of workflows, automation of tasks and implementation of identified best practices to drive efficiencies in turnaround times.

General Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaboration with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business.
• Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with Uisce Éireann's policies including the Information Security policies, standards, processes and controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UÉ business information and delivery of critical services, in accordance with the NIS Directive and any other relevant cybersecurity regulation.
• Responsible for promoting and delivering health and safety commitments across UÉ reinforcing positive behaviours and delivering health and safety objectives and requirements to the highest industry standards.
• Other administrative or coordination duties as may be required within the Chief Legal Office team.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years' experience in a legal, regulatory, compliance or administrative support role.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks, deadlines and competing priorities.
• Experience using any of the following: document management systems, case tracking tools, legal technology platforms, e-discovery, workflow automation tools, redaction software or equivalent.
• High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy and quality assurance.
• Relevant third-level qualification and/or comparable professional experience.
• Experience working with FOI, AIE, data protection, e-discovery or regulatory regimes relating to statutory requests for information. Full training in FOI and AIE will be provided in the event that the successful applicant does not have prior FOI/AIE experience.
• Experience in independently resolving customer challenges while maintaining high service standards.
• Ability to develop effective partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders and ability to look for and listen to diverse perspectives.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to identify and analyse problems and make improvement decisions that benefit the team/communities.
• Proven track record in identifying opportunities for process improvements and innovation.
• Demonstrate the ability to fix safety issues quickly and look for improvements in line with business strategy

The closing date for receipt of applications for this vacancy is 25/06/2026

Please note that applications submitted after this closing date will not be accepted.

*Please be advised that if successful you will be placed on the salary range based on your skills and experience. Please note the Market reference point (midpoint) of the range is generally the upper end of the offer where someone is deemed to be fully competent to take on the duties of the role, and leaves room for the employee to progress through the pay range as their experience develops further.

Uisce Éireann is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive place of work and have a robust strategy and framework called ibelong to enable this. We are an equal opportunity employer and through our recruitment process we welcome and encourage applications from interested and suitably qualified individuals regardless of gender, age, racial or ethnic origin, membership of the traveller community, religion or beliefs, family or civil status, sexual orientation/gender identity or disability.