Vol. 557 No. 4
185 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Finance the number of appeals awaiting hearing by the Information Commission, broken down by the year in which they were first lodged; the average time being taken to hear an appeal; when it is expected the backlog of appeals will be disposed of; if it is intended to allocate additional staff or resources to allow such appeals to be dealt with promptly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22308/02]
As of 15 November 2002, there is a total of 612 appeal cases, technically reviews, on hands in the Office of the Information Commissioner. The breakdown of these appeals in terms of the year of receipt of the appeal is as follows: 1999, 14 cases; 2000, 90 cases; 2001, 283 cases; 2002, 225 cases; total, 612 cases.
Due to the introduction on 1 April 2002 of new working procedures in the Office of the Information Commissioner, it is not possible to give an overall average of the length of time taken to complete a review. All review applications received since 1 April 2002 are being dealt with immediately by the Office of the Information Commissioner. However, it is his objective to have the cases received since dealt with to the greatest extent possible within three months. Some 74% of cases received and decided since then have been dealt with within the three month period. Cases received prior to 1 April 2002 will continue to be processed alongside the more current cases, but it may take two or three years to clear the backlog. The Commissioner will, however, keep all his working arrangements, including those for dealing with the arrears cases, under regular review.
On its establishment in 1998 the office had a staffing complement of nine. I have sanctioned a further ten posts in 2000, but the impact of this reinforcement on the arrears situation was lessened by delays in recruiting and selecting them, which resulted in the office not reaching its full strength until October last year.
