Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 7, inclusive, together.

A total of 84 freedom of information requests have been received in my Department since January 2009. Of these, 40 were granted, 15 were part granted, four were refused, four were withdrawn, there were no records in respect of six and 15 are currently being processed.

As to comparisons with previous years, my Department received in the period to the end of November in each year 40 requests in 2004, 54 in 2005, 51 in 2006, 65 in 2007, 73 in 2008 and 84 up to 13 November in 2009. I have included a table of the number of FOI requests received in my Department each month from January to November for each of the years 2004 to 2009.

A total of €1,009.59 was received by my Department in fees for the period January to September 2009. This is made up of €840 for application fees, €150 for internal review fees and €19.59 for search and retrieval fees. Where search and retrieval fees are likely to apply, officials in my Department usually consult with the requester and agreement is usually reached on more closely specifying the request so that search and retrieval fees can be reduced or eliminated.

All FOI requests received in my Department are processed by statutorily designated officials in accordance with the Freedom of Information Acts. I have no role in processing requests.

*to 13/11/09

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