Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What if they only read the first sentence? In most walks of life people read only the first sentence in most articles of most newspapers. Not everyone gets to read to the end. The section makes provision for a fee. We now come to the next sentence, which the Minister has pointed out and which I have underlined. It states, "The amount of a charge under this subsection shall be equal to the estimated cost of the search for and retrieval and copying of the record concerned by the FOI body concerned for the requester." This sentence states the only fee which can be charged is the search and retrieval fee. I take this to mean there cannot be an application fee.

See this speech in context