Thomas Gould
Question:437. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if TDs are exempt from Freedom of Information charges. [31001/21]
View answerTuesday, 15 June 2021
Questions (437)
Written answers
As the Deputy may be aware, the application fees charged at the initial stage of making an FOI request were abolished with the introduction of the 2014 Freedom of Information Act. In addition, no fees are charged in cases where an individual makes a request for their own personal information, including applications for internal reviews or reviews by the Information Commissioner on decisions relating to personal information.
Where a request is for non-personal information, and the public body estimates that a significant amount of search and retrieval work will be required, a fee may apply. This is calculated at a rate that is fixed in law, and the requester will be given an opportunity to assess the fee, pay a deposit, or potentially focus their request in order to reduce the amount of work that will be involved. Where an individual believes that an estimated search and retrieval fee is unjustified or unjustifiably high, they may seek a review within the organisation concerned, and potentially by the Information Commissioner. No fee would apply to such a review.
However, where a review is sought of a substantive FOI decision to grant or refuse access to records which are not the personal information of the requester may attract fees of €30 and €50 where reviews are sought by internally and by the Information Commissioner respectively.
While statistics are not collated for the proportion of requests where search and retrieval fees are charged, in most given years about 60% of requests are for personal information, where no fee whatsoever applies, and an internal review is sought in only about 3% of cases, with no application fees applying to the remainder.
In relation to the Deputy's specific question, there are no exceptions from fees under the legislation relating specifically to requests from TDs. Therefore, in general, FOI charges, should they arise, would apply in the normal way, as they would to any other individual. However, as outlined above, in the majority of cases processed by public bodies in a given year, no fee will in any case have been charged.