Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 43:

In page 27, to delete lines 33 and 34.

This is the most substantial body of amendments as the section relating to fees caused serious debate. I withdrew my amendments on FOI fees on Committee Stage and said I would give the matter deep consideration because a coherent and strong case was made. I emphasised that I had listened closely to the views expressed by members of the committee on the amendments they tabled and that I would reflect carefully in advance of Report Stage on how best to address the issue of FOI fees and other matters. In that context, I asked my officials to undertake a detailed assessment of the case for reform of the FOI fees regime and a paper has been produced on the subject that I have made available to the various party spokespersons. I hope the paper was of use. The assessment was approached in the context of the Government's commitment to securing substantially greater openness, transparency and accountability in public administration.

On the basis of this assessment, I have decided that a complete reform of the FOI fees regime is required reflecting elements of good practice in other vanguard FOI jurisdictions such as Australia and the UK. The Government has approved this reform and it will see changes including the removal of the application fee, the setting of caps on search, retrieval and copying fees, the provision of some search, retrieval and copying time free of charge and the proposed provision of information in simple administrative form outside of FOI. This will be achieved through the more proactive publication of information and open data policies as well as other access regimes, such as access to environmental information and the EU re-use of public sector information directive.

In summary, the amendments relating to fees that I am proposing to the FOI Bill will make a significant difference. The amendments will see the abolition of the €15 application fee. I have heard it said in recent days that my goal is to reduce the fee to zero so that another Minister could later increase it but this is not the case. I have removed the power from the Bill to set an application fee so any re-introduction of the application fee will require primary legislation. I will introduce a cap of €500, which equates to approximately 25 hours' work, on the amount of search, retrieval and copying fees that can be charged and a further upper limit on estimated search, retrieval and copying fees at €700, or approximately 35 hours' work. Above this limit an FOI body could refuse to process a request, unless the requester is prepared to refine the request to bring the search, retrieval and copying fees below the limit. This is best practice in the UK and I met members of the UK authorities, including the Minister responsible, who believe it works very well. Rather than deal with a blunderbuss application that may take up to 50 hours to deal with, they ask the requester to break up the request into focussed areas.

A minimum threshold of €100, which equates to approximately five hours' work, below which no search, retrieval and copying fees will be charged will be introduced. In other words, there is no application fee and up to five hours of FOI search and retrieval work will be done for free. The provision relating to deposits will be retained. The Bill will introduce a definition to ensure that there is clarity on the activities for which search, retrieval and copying fees can be applied. This will be fully in line with the intention of the original legislation which includes all activities carried out leading up to the finalisation of a file containing the records for review by the decision maker prior to release. The amendments will also see the reduction of costs for internal reviews, as I set out, and a substantial reduction in the cost of appeals to the Information Commissioner has been agreed by the Government from the outset. In accordance with normal practice, the actual monetary amounts in each category will be set by way of ministerial order. The changes to the fees regime are dramatic and go a long way to take in the strong views expressed by Opposition Members and external groups. I listened carefully to the presentations made at the open Government forum and I spoke to a number of experts in FOI best practice around the globe to ensure Ireland can be an exemplar on this.

Some will argue this regime will put too much pressure on an over-burdened administrative system because we have reduced numbers but I feel it is appropriate and I am happy the Government has endorsed my proposals.

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