Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Freedom of Information Acts, the procedures used by the Department followed the guidelines set out in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's decision-makers manual. I am satisfied the processes being followed by the Department comply fully with the manual. Systems are in place to ensure requests are answered within a set timeframe. My Department has a database which is dedicated to processing freedom of information requests. The database allows the Department to know the details and status of every request. It is monitored by the freedom of information liaison officer who receives all requests, logs them on the system and refers them to the appropriate division for reply.

I do not have the exact figure to hand in respect of the number answered outside the 20 day statutory framework of 2016, but I understand approximately 50% of the requests received were answered outside the timeframe. I emphasise though that many of the replies which were answered late issued within a few days of the statutory deadline and in many of these cases it should be noted it was agreed with the requesters that replies could issue slightly outside the statutory deadline where, for example, the decision-makers were attending to other duties or for pressure of work reasons because the Department does not have full-time freedom of information officers.

It should also be noted that there has been a significant increase in the number of freedom of information requests received by the Department since the abolition on 14 October 2014 of the application fees for freedom of information requests. In 2013, the Department received 92 freedom of information requests, while this figure rose to 290 in 2015 and 275 in 2016. Quite a broad span of people answer these questions and there is not a specific figure we can give for the time spent by officials on answering the queries that come in.

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