Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As already stated, the Law Reform Commission is the only agency under my aegis which is not included at present and this matter has been under consideration for some time.

As for the fees issue, I have stated on numerous occasions that personal information is free and the same is true of appeals. The figures are rising again and the majority of cases involve journalists. While there has never been any analysis carried out, the numbers of applications are not high, apart from during the initial period after the Act was first introduced, when people tried to gain access to older information. While there was a significant rush from the public initially, demand has eased off. The incidence of people using the Act for other information purposes has also more or less stopped. The fee of €15 is modest, particularly when one considers that previous fee in respect of such an application was €425. However, as that figure is a few years old, I presume the actual figure is closer to €500. Hence, when the work and preparation involved in an application are taken into account, the fee is modest.

Various countries have different ways of approaching this issue. The criticism of the legislation in Ireland was that an insufficient number of agencies were covered by the Act and this issue has now been dealt with. Although an independent review of the information by the Information Commissioner does not support some of the contentions regarding record-keeping, people generally use the Act as they require and the fee does not discourage them.

A fee is payable in respect of the appeal mechanism. It costs €75 for an internal appeal and €150 for an appeal to the Information Commissioner, with reductions for those with medical cards. An appeal to the Information Commissioner involves a quasi-judicial process, which can require many months to complete and which can give rise to a considerable amount of work. Hence, the fee is viewed as a fair reflection of the costs involved. Moreover, one receives a preliminary report from the Information Commissioner. If one accepts this report, one may withdraw one's case without incurring a cost, which people sometimes also do.

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