Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is done by different countries in different ways. It is not correct to say that we are expensive when compared with other jurisdictions. It is not done in exactly the same way by other jurisdictions, but on examination of the totality of what is done, there are very high fees in some countries.

The extension of the Act to public bodies is an ongoing process that has been undertaken by the Department of Finance. Last year the Act was extended to cover another 137 bodies, which means it now covers 520 bodies in total. Arrangements are currently under way in the Department of Finance to prepare an extension of the Act. It covers a broad section of the public service and bodies practically everywhere are covered.

While the issue of fees is a matter for the Minister for Finance, there has been no change in fees since the 2003 Act. The Minister has made it clear that he has no plans to review the fees. The current system of fees introduced more than four years ago followed a review of the Act introduced almost ten years ago. The fee is €15 and the estimated average administrative cost at that time for processing each application was €425. The estimate will have changed in the interim four years due to salary costs. Nobody can argue that this fee is unreasonable or that it discourages FOI requests. There is no charge for the time undertaking in making a decision on the FOI request, even though this is quite expensive. Most other jurisdictions have a charge for the time that goes into the processing of a decision. It is not in the up front cost, but is added in later and that makes the cost much higher than ours. After we brought in the original Freedom of Information Act, there was a huge demand for information. The number of requests declined in 2002 and 2003, but there was a 30% increase in 2005 from the previous year. That upward trend has continued.

An internal appeal costs €75 while an appeal to the Information Commissioner costs €150. There are €25 and €50 reductions for medical card holders. Appeals concerning personal information are entirely exempt from fees, so if the issue is related to someone's own circumstances then that person pays nothing at all. A person who appeals to the Information Commissioner receives a preliminary decision, which is a fairly good indication of the final decision. Even at that late stage of the process the person seeking information can withdraw the appeal and obtain a full refund of fees. About 30% of appeals made to the Information Commissioner are withdrawn. People see what way things are going and they pull back. The whole thing is sympathetically dealt with and there has been no decision to look at costs at this stage. If there was such a decision, the Department of Finance would probably go the other way.

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