Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Uasal Deering chuig an gcoiste. We are used to Mr. Deering being a guest of our committee, but today he is with a different hat on, and I look forward to working with him in that new capacity. I take this opportunity to thank him for the engagement we have had during his role as the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, particularly in the passage of my legislation where we got rid of the seven-year rule and allowed people to access the office of the ombudsman, be that in regard to insurance or other financial banking products. That was a successful engagement and good legislation that has had a good effect since. I thank him for his personal engagement and the engagement of the office.

A lot of ground has been covered. I have some specific questions to ask Mr. Deering and then I will make a more general point. We have a situation where public bodies often cite the low level of appeals in freedom of information, FOI, cases and they signpost that this suggests the regime is working well. All too often, when appeals are taken to the Information Commissioner, as Mr. Deering will be aware, those decisions are overturned, and this would indicate the regime is not working as properly, in the first step, as it should. In the event that an appeal is successful, should the application fee be refunded to the applicant? Should the Department or public body be required to publish information on FOI appeal refunds? This would bring more light to the fact that a certain body that is refusing FOI requests is having them subsequently overturned. It would also be an incentive to individuals to take an appeal if they believed the fee would be refunded by the Department.