Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 19 Apr 2000

Vol. 518 No. 4

Written Answers. - Freedom of Information Act.

John Gormley

Question:

159 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Finance if he will introduce a charge for requests under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997; if so, when he intends to this; the amount he will seek to charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11912/00]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

Charges have always been a feature of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997. Under section 47 of the Act, public bodies are obliged to charge a requester in respect of the grant of an FOI request unless the cost of collecting and accounting for the fee would outweigh the fee itself. The principal charges currently in operation are £16.50 per hour for search and retrieval of records and 3p per copy of a record made. Therefore there is no question of "introducing" a charge for FOI requests.

There are important circumstances where charges do not apply. For example, where records contain personal information relating to the requester, a fee must be disregarded by the public body unless the request encompasses a significant number of records. Furthermore, the Act allows a public body to waive all or part of a fee after having regard to the means of the requester. Also, under section 47(8)(a), a requester may ask the public body to specify the amendments, if any, to the request which would have the effect of reducing or eliminating the fee.

Certain changes to the existing charges regime are being examined in my Department following a report undertaken by the network of civil service users of the FOI Act. That report recommended a number of changes to the existing charges regime aimed primarily at curbing flagrant abuses of the Act and at allowing the Act operate more efficiently and effectively. It should be emphasised that the report's recommendations in this area are aimed at improving the operation of the Act from the point of view of both requester and public body. It should also be emphasised that my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Cullen, made a particular point in a recent statement he made to the Seanad of saying that he did not favour a basic small fee for persons seeking access to their own records or for Oireachtas Members and that he felt it would be appropriate to offset any up-front fee with an allowance for, say, up to two hours search and retrieval time for free.

No firm conclusions have been reached as yet on charges or other areas of the FOI Act and its operation that have been identified for improvement. The intention has been to consider these matters in depth and to listen to the views of Oireachtas members and others before making or proposing changes. The Minister of State has met with the relevant Oireachtas committees to discuss the civil service users network report. I think that Minister of State's Seanad statement of 6 April 2000 is a useful exposition of the current position on FOI and I have arranged that a copy be sent to the Deputy.