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 needs and legal and regulatory obligations. This includes advising the business on specialised matters, managing litigation, 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 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.
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 Officer will log, track, coordinate and progress FOI and AIE requests, liaise with Decision Makers across the business, prepare schedules and correspondence, support redaction workflows and maintain 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 escalates 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.
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.
Maintain version control of schedules and release packs.
Provide administrative support for clarification requests and revised scopes.
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 with Legal (including Litigation), IT, the Data Protection Office and Corporate Affairs in relation to FOI/AIE matters.
Support delivery of FOI/AIE training materials, guidance notes or process updates.
Assist 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.
Conduct duties and responsibilities in accordance with Uisce Éireann’s policies, including 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
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 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 if 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 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 and communities.
Proven track record in identifying opportunities for process improvements and innovation.
Demonstrate ability to fix safety issues quickly and look for improvements in line with business strategy.
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 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.
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