Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 3 Apr 2003

Vol. 564 No. 3

Written Answers - Freedom of Information.

Richard Bruton

Question:

207 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the instances in the past five years where a record relating to the deliberative process of a public body under his Department was released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9305/03]

Richard Bruton

Question:

208 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the instances in which records relating to a committee appointed by the Government to advise it on a particular issue have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9320/03]

Richard Bruton

Question:

209 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the instances in which records relating to security, defence or international relations have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9350/03]

Richard Bruton

Question:

210 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the instances where the existence of information which was either obtained in confidence or commercially sensitive was released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9336/03]

Richard Bruton

Question:

211 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport the instances where communications between Ministers in relation to a particular matter which has been submitted to the Government for their consideration have been released under the Freedom of Information Act 1997 where the public interest was not on balance better served by granting rather than refusing the request; and in each case if this release was made by the head of the public body, or on appeal to the Information Commissioner. [9365/03]

Minister for Transport (Mr. Brennan)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 207 to 211, inclusive, together.

To date the Department of Transport and its predecessor, the former Department of Public Enterprise, has received 943 requests for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act 1997.

Decisions have been taken in respect of 849 of these requests, 278 were granted, 254 were part granted, 114 were withdrawn or handled outside of FOI, 23 were transferred to other bodies under the Act and 225 were denied by the relevant decision maker in the Department.

In respect of requests which were denied or part granted, an internal review was sought by the requester in 77 cases. Of these, 37 subsequently also applied to the Office of the Information Commissioner for a review of the Department's decision. The Commissioner upheld the original decision of the Department in 11 instances; granted additional information in two cases; five cases were withdrawn and a decision is pending in 19 cases.

The Department's tracking system records whether an FOI request has been granted, part-granted, denied or withdrawn. It does not record the outcome, or basis for decision, in respect of each individual record which was examined in the course of compiling a response to a particular FOI request.