Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Howlin raised a good point. Sometimes when people in the media send in a freedom of information request to a Department or Minister, they like to say the information is an exclusive although it might be available through public sources anyway. No more than when the Deputy was a Minister and he never saw these requests coming in because they were dealt with completely outside his influence or remit by the freedom of information officer, and whatever redactions were to be made were made by the officer unless there was an appeal to the commissioner subsequently, I do not see the requests.

4 o’clock

It would be a good thing to put up all the requests that are received and, on the day that the information is available, to put it all up again so that everybody knows. Perhaps we should look at it in some other way to see if it can be improved again. There is such a mountain of information that people are probably not going to go through much of it. There could be ten questions in one request and it might cover quite a range of material. There was an increase in the number of requests that were lodged when the fee was abolished by the Government in the interests of increasing the capacity to be able to apply for information.

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked about the numbers that were granted. I have the information for 2016. Some 275 requests were received and 51 were fully granted, 133 were part-granted and 57 were refused, including five where no records were held. There were requests for internal reviews in seven cases and there was one appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner. I do not know why they were refused or what they were about, but if Deputy McDonald wants similar information for some other years, I can forward that to her too, including numbers that were refused or part-refused.

Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 requires each freedom of information, FOI, body, including my Department, to prepare and publish a publication scheme with as much information as possible about its work in an open and accessible manner on a routine basis outside of the FOI system, having regard to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability as set out in the Act. This allows for the publication or giving of records outside the FOI process, provided such publication or giving of access is not prohibited by law. The scheme commits FOI bodies to make information available as part of their normal business activities in accordance with this scheme. In the spirit of openness and transparency, my Department's publication scheme publishes a range of information on a quarterly basis on the Department's website. This includes details of foreign travel expenses, details of invoices paid in excess of €20,000, minutes of the Department's management advisory committee meetings and a log of freedom of information requests.

Deputy Michael McGrath said that if further information is given in parliamentary questions, it might obviate the need to make freedom of information requests in some cases. I support that and have always said to Department officials to provide as much information as is appropriate and of value to the requester of the information in the first place by way of Dáil questions and so on.

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