The Supreme Court has ruled that the Rotunda Hospital does not have to release information to the family of an elderly man about his birth mother.
The court overturned a High Court decision by a four to one majority.
The man at the centre of this case was born in 1922 in the Rotunda. He died in 2008 before getting the information he wanted about his mother.
His daughter wrote to the hospital in 2004 seeking her grandmother's date of birth on behalf of her father. She made the request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The hospital refused to give out the information on the grounds that the Act does not allow personal information to be disclosed.
The Information Commissioner directed the hospital to disclose the information and the High Court upheld that decision.
However, four Supreme Court judges overturned the High Court's ruling.
The judges found that the Act does apply to the relevant hospital records.
It also found personal information about the man's mother would have been given to the hospital in confidence and on the understanding that it would be kept confidential.
It also found that the public interest did not justify its release.
