Mr. Ger Deering:

There are two types of information that can be sought under FOI. One area is public information generally and the other is personal data. Obviously personal data are something that should always have to be applied for by the person themselves. In some institutions up to 60% of the information that is sought under FOI is in fact public information. I would believe, as the Deputy has rightly pointed out, that if it is necessary to redact certain pieces of this information, then that would be acceptable. A lot of information is released under FOI, so my thinking is that if it can be released under FOI, why not put it up on the website in the first place. Almost all public bodies have very good websites with a lot of information, and I will outline what I would like to see as they develop in this area. In fact, many bodies put up on their websites the information they grant under FOI.

I appreciate that for many organisations they consider requests under FOI to be an administrative burden, but people are entitled to this information and we must resource the area. If we put the information up on the website in the first place, a considerable number of people can then access it and will not need to submit an FOI request. If people measured the amount of time it takes to deal with an FOI request as opposed to deciding to put the information up on their website, they would find that in the long run there would be an efficiency. As well as doing the right thing it could also help in terms of efficiency for the organisations and save on resources.