Freedom of Information.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2006

Thursday, 19 October 2006

Ceisteanna (269)

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

268 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of requests under the Freedom of Information Acts received by his Department in each year from 2002 to 2005 and to date in 2006; the amount of money received in application fees for each year; the amount of money received in information retrieval fees for each year; the percentage of requests coming from journalists in each year; the percentage of retrieval fees that were charged to journalists rather than members of the public; the percentage of requests from journalists for which a retrieval fee was charged; the percentage of requests from members of the public for which a retrieval fee was charged; the average retrieval fee charged; the median retrieval fee charged; the number of cases in which the retrieval fee was waived; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33717/06]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Mr. Brennan)

The application fees to which the Deputy refers relate only to Freedom of Information requests for non personal records, and reviews of decisions on such requests. No application fees apply to requests for personal records. An application fee of €15 applies to requests for non-personal records under FOI and a reduced fee of €10 applies for Medical Card holders. For an internal review of an FOI decision maker's decision the fees are €75 and €25 respectively. The vast majority of requests (92%) received by my Department are for personal records.

Retrieval fees are charged in non-personal cases only, and only where there is a large volume of records to be retrieved for examination, or where a number of people hold records relevant to the request, or the records are held in a number of areas in my Department. There has, since 2002, only been one request which has attracted this charge. The request was from a journalist and the charge occurred in 2003 and amounted to €240.93. The other information requested by the Deputy, is provided in the Appendix.

Appendix

Information on requests received under FOI by the Department of Social and Family Affairs under various categories as requested by the Deputy.
Year	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006†
Number of requests received	729	643	607	517	409
Cases subject to application fee*	n/a	12	22	22	22
Amount received in application fees*	n/a	€170	€325	€325	€510
Amount received in information retrieval fees	€0	€240.93	€0	€0	€0
% of requests from journalists	3	5	2	3	2

*Fees introduced July 2003.

†Up to 29th September 2006.