Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Normally if there is no information, it means there is no file in the Department, not that anything is lost. If that happened, I would specifically say so, but as far as I can recall, that has not happened since the Act was introduced.

On amendment of the legislation, each year the Department of Finance looks at the reports of the Information Commissioner and the interdepartmental group, and neither group has recommended changes this year.

My Department, in correspondence by way of telephone calls, e-mails and freedom of information requests, communicates in Irish when necessary. No extra staff were allocated to the Department for the additional work involved in freedom of information requests. It was taken on by approximately 18 people across the Department. It was divided out among key decision makers across departmental divisions. This is still the position but I assume it helps that less work is now involved. However, when one looks back over the records in my Department, many of them were in the early period where people wanted information. When personal information is involved, no fee is charged and people can still get that information. There has been a major reduction in the number of cases in the last 18 months.

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