Freedom of Information requests decline 36%

THE number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made each year to public bodies has fallen by 36% since the Government introduced application fees in 2003.

This is despite the fact that the number of bodies to which the FOI Act is applicable has increased substantially in that time.

It might have been assumed that the number of FOI requests would rise as the records of more bodies become accessible under the act.

In fact, the opposite has happened. The Opposition has argued that the introduction of fees is one of the most likely causes for this.

Last year, 11,804 FOI requests were made to public bodies, a sharp decline on 2003, when 18,443 requests were made. This represents a decrease of 36%.

The FOI Act was amended in 2003 and application fees introduced. Since then, any individual applying for non-personal information must pay an application fee of €15. If their request is refused and they ask for a more senior official within the public body to review the decision, they must pay a fee of €75. If the internal review is also refused, and the person appeals the decision to the independent Information Commissioner, they must pay €150.

Public bodies also charge “search and retrieval and copying” fees. According to the Government’s FOI website — www.foi.gov.ie — these fees are €20.95 per hour of search and retrieval, 4c per sheet for a photocopy, and €10.16 for a CD-ROM containing copy documents.

Since the fees were introduced, the annual number of applications has never reached 2003 levels.

In 2004, there was a sharp drop to 12,597 applications. That rose slightly to 14,616 in 2005, only to fall back again last year to 11,804.

The 2006 figures were contained in the latest report on the FOI Act, published yesterday by Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Noel Ahern.

Mr Ahern did concede that the number of applications in 2006 had decreased by 19% on 2005. However, he said this was “largely accounted for by the significantly-reduced number of personal requests to the Department of Education and Science in connection with the Residential Institutions Redress Board”.

The redress board is the independent body set up in 2002 to compensate those abused as children in industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions subject to State regulation or inspection. The deadline for applications to the redress board was December 2005.

Of last year’s FOI applications, 77% of requests were made by members of the public with business users accounting for 7%. Journalists accounted for 10%, members of staff of public bodies accounted for 5%, and the remaining 1% was submitted by public representatives.

Overall, 70% of requests were from people seeking access to their own personal information, meaning they would not have been charged.

Over 76% of the requests dealt with in 2006 were granted either in full or in part, according to the report.