Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not make any contribution to yesterday's proceedings, which went on quite late into the evening. I welcome the fact that the legislation is before us. Regardless of the position in respect of fees, there has been an enormous gap in this area since the removal of the relevant provision approximately ten years ago. There are those who may wish to concentrate on the issue of fees but for most people this is but a small aspect of the overall scheme. We have heard two narratives on this matter today, namely, during Taoiseach's Questions in the Dáil and at the very beginning of this meeting. In the report produced following the joint committee's hearings last June, it is stated that the greatest amount of debate and concern related to the issue of fees. There has been an attempt to suggest that this issue has been parachuted into the debate. I attended the joint committee's hearings and not only were fees discussed, they were the first issue of concern. I accept, however, that a recommendation was not made.

The Minister has indicated that he is going to reconsider this matter but I do not see what he said as constituting a U-turn. For what it is worth, I am of the view that a fee should be charged. In light of the prevailing economic climate and given the workload involved, it is not unreasonable to expect people to pay a small amount of money. As has already been stated, there will not be a charge in respect of personal information requests or subsets thereof. These represent in the region of 70% of the overall number of requests. Any private citizen who requires information on himself or herself will not, therefore, be obliged to pay a fee. We are currently charging people for all sorts of things for which we do not want to charge them. Given that the Minister is frequently credited with issuing requests to his colleagues in Cabinet in this regard, I am of the view that it is correct that there should not be a fee for personal information requests.

In the context of managing demand, the report relating to the joint committee's hearings refers to more automatic publication. The way to manage demand is to increase supply. We must get the message across that taxpayers are paying an average of €600 per request. I do not taxpayers want this to be the case. The document submitted by the Minister in respect of multifaceted requests is very interesting and, perhaps, somewhat amusing. It highlights the fact that a large amount of the information involved should be made available as a matter of course in order to reduce the amount - currently €600 - which the taxpayer is obliged to pay. We have failed in this regard. The position which obtains in the United Kingdom in respect of an expense of over €500 for a local authority is reasonable. The figure could perhaps be higher and it could automatically be put in place. The Chairman and I previously served on the same local authority in Cork. That authority frequently received FOI requests in respect of councillors travel and expenses, etc., and it eventually made a decision to publish these on its website. That people were previously obliged to submit requests for this information implies that it was hidden. Clearly journalists must be in a position to access such information.

The debate on this issue has been quite one-sided in nature to date. I am of the view that the fee is modest and reasonable and that personal information requests will not be affected. I accept that the Minister is reconsidering the position. We must continue to encourage all the public bodies which come under the stewardship of his Department to publish information because this will reduce expenditure. I spoke to the FOI officer of a large public body about the workload involved and the issue of the fee. He informed me that it may or may not be a cost to him but that the real cost emanates from being obliged to access the same documents year after year. The information contained in these documents should be published on the Internet at the start of each year in order to reduce the both amount of work and the costs involved.