Freedom of Information requests fall but Ahern happy with changes to Act

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday conceded that the number of Freedom of Information requests has fallen since the Government amended the FOI Act earlier this year.

This year’s controversial FOI amendments, which were widely criticised, changed the release of cabinet details from five to 10 years and imposed charges for FOI requests.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Ahern said: “In so far as my Department is concerned, there appears to have been a fall-off in the number of applications since July. It is probably too early to draw specific conclusions, but undoubtedly the introduction of the fee has had an impact.”

However, Mr Ahern welcomed the change saying it had stopped people abusing the Act while still facilitating personal FOI requests.

“With regard to individuals, personal information, appeals and requests, there has been no change whatever. There has clearly been a change, however, in that those who were either engaged in trawls or making it their mission to seek frivolous information have disappeared from the process because they are obliged to pay to make requests,” he said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny attacked the Government for strangling the Act.

“From the statistics produced here, it is fair to say that the single most spectacular success of the Government has been the strangulation of the Freedom of Information Act,” he said.

According to figures obtained by Fine Gael, the number of weekly requests from January to the end of September 2003 in the Department of Agriculture and Food has fallen by 61%, while requests to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Department of Finance are down by 85%.

The Taoiseach’s Department has seen a drop of 83% in the same period.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte accused the Government of “effectively killing off” the FOI Act and putting it beyond the reach of citizens.

Mr Ahern, who said he was happy with the current Act, said that two requests under FOI have been made to his office for the month of October.

So far this year, 133 requests to the Taoiseach’s office have been made compared to 111 last year for the same period.