Covid-19 pandemic blamed for fall in FOI requests

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall. Last year, his office received 584 review applications and dealt with more than 400 throughout the year. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The number of Freedom of Information requests to public bodies fell by 21% last year, "most likely" due to the impact of Covid-19, according to the 2020 annual report of the Information Commissioner.

The “unsurprising” fall in Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to public bodies, from almost 40,000 in 2019 to 31,591 last year, marked the first decline in nine years and followed a trend where FOI requests increased by 42% since 2014.

The HSE received the highest number of requests (8,737), followed by the Department of Social Protection (1,706) and Tusla, the child and family agency, (986).

Of the top 10 public bodies for FOI requests, only the Department of Education saw an increase in requests last year, from 505 in 2019 to 558 in 2020.

Users of public services

Half of all FOI requests were made by clients or users of public services and just over one fifth were made by journalists.

While the number of FOI requests fell, the number of reviews of FOI decisions by the Information Commissioner Peter Tyndall remained relatively stable.

Last year Mr Tyndall’s office received 584 review applications and dealt with more than 400 throughout the year, down by 4% on 2019 figures.

Of the review applications, the highest numbers related to FOI decisions by the HSE (65), Department of Justice (24) and Tusla (21).

The commissioner, who has been calling for a review of the FOI Act since 2017, welcomed a recent announcement to review the legislation.

'Considerable room for improvement'

“After six years’ experience of operating the 2014 FOI Act, it is clear to me that there is considerable room for improvement. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed to improve the Act for everyone, including users and public bodies,” Mr Tyndall said.

Current legislation could be extended to non-public bodies in receipt of significant public funding but this had not happened yet, he said, adding that greater alignment between the FOI and Access to Information on the Environment schemes is required.

Among several key rulings last year, the Commissioner ruled against the Department of An Taoiseach, which claimed it did not "hold" or "control" records deposited following an investigation by an Interdepartmental Committee into the State’s involvement in Magdalene laundries.

Mr Tyndall found the records were held by the department and directed it to respond to the FOI request.