Thousands delve into Government paperwork

Almost 15,000 requests were made to elicit materials from public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act last year, it was confirmed today.

A total of 14,616 FOI requests were made during 2005 – an increase of 16% on 2004.

Tom Parlon, Minister of State at the Finance Department, said: “Significant progress was made last year on extension of the FOI Act with the announcement in October 2005 of plans to include some 130 additional public bodies.”

Some of the bodies now covered include each County Enterprise Board, the Medical Council, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, the Radiological Protection Institute, the Office of Tobacco Control and the Family Support Agency.

Launching the Eighth Report on the Freedom of Information Act, Mr Parlon said: “These plans will bring to over 500 the number of bodies covered by FOI, compared to 67 when the Act was introduced eight years ago.”

Around 82% of the 14,616 requests received by public bodies last year were made by members of the public. Business users accounted for 5.5%, journalists 6.5%, members of staff of public bodies 5% and the remaining 1% of requests were submitted by public representatives.

Around 76% of requests last year were from people seeking access to their own personal information. Over a fifth were for non-personal information. The majority of applications were granted.

Just over 107,600 FOI requests have been received by public bodies since the act came into force. From April 1998 until the end of last year around 48,600 requests had been granted in full, a further 31,960 were partially granted or withdrawn and 16,760 were refused.

The majority of applications have been seeking information from Government Departments and Offices and State Bodies, around 14% have been received by Local Authorities and those received by the health sector accounted for 30%.

A FOI code of practice was launched in June of last year to aid public access to information held by North/South Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland.

In June, the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly said access to information under the FOI Act had been excessively curtailed by the imposition of fees.