Vol. 528 No. 1
84 Dr. Upton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of freedom of information requests received by her Department; the number of requests rejected; if she will review the treatment of freedom of information requests; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29456/00]
As of 30 November 2000 my Department had received 756 FOI requests. Of these requests 743 had been dealt with at that date, with 13 being transferred to other Departments and 165 withdrawn or dealt with outside FOI. A decision was taken to grant the request for access in 137 cases, to part-grant in 188 cases and to refuse the request for access, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, in 240 cases. It should be noted that of those requests refused, 67 were refused on the grounds that they were frivolous and vexatious and pertained to an individual who had made 196 requests to my Department.
The treatment of FOI requests is constantly monitored by the FOI unit of my Department, which, like other areas of the Department reports to management in the normal course of business. The FOI unit also inputs to the FOI central policy unit of the Department of Finance which reports on FOI implementation measures to the Oireachtas on a yearly basis, in accordance with section 15(6) of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997. I am satisfied that FOI requests are dealt with expeditiously by my Department. Apart from the individuals referred to earlier, who submitted 31 appeals, only five appeals involving my Department have been referred to the office of the Information Commissioner.
