FOI requests down 50% since fee applied
There were 142 submissions for information from his department in 2003.
Details made available to the houses of the oireachtas by Mr Ahern on Wednesday revealed that Freedom of Information claims have considerably fallen since then. A mere 71 requests were submitted to Mr Ahern’s office for the whole of last year — half the amount made in 2003, when charges were introduced for handling queries.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who requested the details, pressed the Taoiseach on whether it was time to remove fees for requests by members of the public and journalists considering the large fall-off in queries.
Mr Ahern replied there were no plans by Finance Minister Brian Cowen to review Freedom of Information charges, but added that it was unlikely fees would rise in the near future.
“The prices have not changed for the past five years,” said Mr Ahern.
The €15 fee for requests was a modest one, he added.
A fee applies for queries unless they are personal ones. Appeals on queries cost €75 and a further appeal to the information commissioner costs €150. Freedom of Information officers can also apply handling charges, which are set per hour of work.
Mr Ahern said despite his office receiving only half the amount of submissions since charges were introduced, requests were starting to rise.
While requests amounted to just 71 last year, they were lower in 2006 with just 54 applications. However, figures for last year show that of the 71 submitted, 11 were rejected. In 17 cases, no records were found. Requests were also only partly granted in a separate 17 of cases and three were also withdrawn. This means that in total, Mr Ahern’s office only fully granted and supplied 23 requests for 2007.
The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly maintains that access to information has been curtailed by the introduction of fees.
* www.foi.gov.ie
