Freedom of Information Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 December 2019

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Ceisteanna (140)

Barry Cowen

Ceist:

140. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of freedom of information requests made to his Department in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the number of requests fully denied by reason; the number of requests partially denied; the number of appeals made against denials; the number of such appeals upheld; the number of such appeals rejected; the number of requests that required a fee; the amount received for freedom of information requests in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50601/19]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice and Equality

The information requested by the Deputy is set out in tabular format below.

As noted in the table, due to the time-frame for processing requests under the Freedom of Information Act, there will always be a number of live cases on hand at the end of each year which have to be finalised in the following calendar year.

It is not possible to provide statistics on the grounds applying to individual refusals on a retrospective basis as this information was not previously part of the Department's tracking system for FOI requests. However, a new tracking system has been adopted by the Department during 2019 and this information will be available with respect to future requests.

As the Deputy will be aware, a fee is no longer required to process a Freedom of Information request for non-personal records. The fee for an internal review (appeal) of a request under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 in relation to non-personal records is €30 or €10 for a medical card-holder. During the specified period, the Department has received a total of €770 in respect of applications for internal reviews for non-personal requests.

During the specified period, my Department has not received any search and retrieval fees for requests.

Year	2016	2017	2018	2019 (YTD 31/11/2019)
No. FOI requests received	583	769	827	828
Personal	312	402	378	373
Non-personal	269	394	449	454
Mixed	2	0	0	1
Outcome
Granted	159	163	235	197
Part granted	206	250	302	309
Refused	7	274	201	191
Transferred	26	3	4	1
Withdrawn	32	45	48	58
Withdrawn and handled outside of Act	76	45	63	11
Cases on hand at year end	109	125	99	160
Appeals
Internal Appeals	76	125	72	61*
Internal Appeals (Granted/Part granted/Withdrawn and handled outside the Act)	47	45	37	28
Internal Appeals Refused	29	80	35	23

*A number of reviews are still being processed.