FOI requests fall by over 80% with advent of fees

FREEDOM of Information (FOI) requests have fallen by more than 80% in some Government departments since fees were introduced over a year ago.

According to figures released to Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton, FOI requests for the first quarter of this year are down 46% compared to the same period last year.

However, the figures for many individual Government departments are worse than the overall average with the Department of Transport showing a fall of 86% in requests while the Taoiseach’s department saw FOI requests fall by 87%.