Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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5. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of the review of freedom of information, FOI, legislation; the person or body that will be carrying out the review; the terms of reference of the review; the timeline for the completion of the review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45634/21]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Is ceist shimplí dhíreach í. It is to ascertain the status of the review of the FOI legislation, the person or body that would carry out the review, the terms of reference for the review and the timeline for completion. Could the Minister make a statement on it?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy very much for her question. I am glad to have this opportunity to provide the House with further details on the upcoming review of the Freedom of Information Act. My Department will shortly publish a roadmap document that will set out in detail the process for the review and give detailed information on how interested stakeholders can get involved.

My firm belief is that we should be seeking to promote a collaborative approach not only to the review process but also to "doing transparency" more broadly. We should recognise that all stakeholders, from the public sector to the media, academia, activists and interest groups, in addition to individual requesters, have a role to play in delivering effective and meaningful State transparency for the Irish public, and must work together to achieve that goal.

The remit and outcomes of the review will be driven by evidence. The review will, accordingly, seek inputs from the broadest possible range of stakeholders throughout the process. It is planned that public consultation will take place later this year. It will largely determine the scope of the review. I urge all interested parties to take this opportunity to make their voices heard and define the issues that will be considered in the review.

Following the scoping consultation, my Department will prepare and publish a document setting out the issues that have been identified. This document will be published and further consultation will take place early in the new year that will allow stakeholders the opportunity to make detailed submissions based on the themes that have been identified. These submissions will be central to the outcome of the review.

Alongside the public consultation process, my Department will engage in focused and targeted information gathering, driven by any knowledge gaps identified as the review progresses.

Two projects have already been identified as necessary and will commence later in the year. First, a customer satisfaction survey will be undertaken to assess the attitudes of requesters and staff members of public bodies towards the freedom of process. Second, there is to be a project that aims to assess the cost of FOI so that we can have a clear picture of the resourcing demands that are required to operate the system as it stands. In addition, the review will consider international good practice and developments and seek to take account of the transformation in the manner in which people interact with information since the 2014 Act came into force.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for confirming that there is a review. That was announced in June. I welcome that. I am a little worried about the vagueness of the phrase “in the coming weeks”. Will the Minister be more specific on when the roadmap will be published and when we will have the final result with a view to amending the legislation, if necessary?

I listened last week to the Minister's speech on the Sinn Féin motion on FOI. I thank him for that speech because he included a lot of detail. I actually agree with him that we should be changing the approach entirely. It would be great if we did not need the FOI arrangement but we do. We went through the circular process of introducing it, which was revolutionary at the time, but it was not broad enough. Then we changed the system and introduced a fee, and then we removed that fee. I notice that 50% of all the requests were by individuals seeking personal information. This is an extraordinarily high rate. Why is that the case? I will keep to the time because I am very strict on it when in the Chair.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We will be consulting closely with the Office of the Information Commissioner on an ongoing basis as the review progresses, given the central role that office plays. As the Deputy knows, I announced the review back in June, before any of the recent controversies arose. I want to be clear to the House that the intention of the review, from my perspective, is to strengthen and improve the FOI system; it is certainly not about narrowing the scope of FOI or anything like that. I was of the view, having settled into office, that there was a need for the system to be reviewed. Having said that, it is by no means all bad. There were 41,000 requests processed in 2019. Even last year, 32,652 were processed. The system delivers, in respect of four out of five FOI requests, all or part of the information requested. In about 3% of cases an internal review is sought, and in about 1% of cases a review is sought by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

In 70% of the cases on which the Information Commissioner adjudicates, the decision is in favour of the public body. I agree in that we need to improve matters. I thank the several thousand members of staff who work and operate this system. We need to listen to them as well because they can identify gaps in the system and areas for improvement.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am not sure if I can do justice to this in a minute. I reiterate that of the figure that the Minister has mentioned for 2020, half were personal requests. I am aware of the position with the local authorities. I very much hope that the Minister’s scoping exercise and analysis will look at them and why applicants on housing lists have to go through a torturous application process in order to get their personal details as to where they are on the list or why they were removed from it.

Then, of course, there is the cognitive dissonance relating to Ministers in the context of the Freedom of Information Act and deleting texts while they are obliged to do certain things under the law. There are all sorts of contradictions here. We then have the Information Commissioner, who operates on a presumption that a refusal is not justified unless the public body shows to the satisfaction of the commissioner that the decision was justified. On the other hand, public sector bodies seem issue refusals in the first instance and the information has to be dragged out of them. I may be exaggerating a little but we really need to look at that. We are aware of the case of Ken Fox and the fact that official information was being held on non-official forms. There are all sorts of things going on. Will the Minister provide specific dates as to when he expects the process to be completed?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I certainly would like to get to a point where the need for FOI requests would be reduced and where more information would be more readily available, particularly in the context of personal requests. It cab be quite a cumbersome process to get for people the information that they need.

I will be bringing a memorandum to Cabinet - I expect to do so as early as next week - setting out the process and seeking formal Government approval. We want to do this properly. It will take some time to complete the process and it will be next year before the review is complete.

I make the point that all public bodies have records management policies and the position is clear regarding the retention of data and what the obligations are in that respect. It must be done in a manner that is consistent with the National Archives Act the data protection legislation, and, of course, the Freedom of Information Act itself. I want to take a collaborative approach to this review. I recognise that while overall the system is working well, it is in need of improvement. I am determined to work with the Opposition, with stakeholders and with everyone else to bring about those improvements. The process in this regard will formally commence once Cabinet has approved the review, but it will be next year before it is complete.