In regard to up-front fees, the proposal to charge an up-front fee for the FOI stems from the recommendations of the report by the Civil Service Users' Network on the operation of the Act. The intention behind the recommendation is to encourage responsible use of the Act and to better reflect the cost to public bodies of FOI. It is worth emphasising that the Act already requires fees to be charged except for personal information or in exceptional cases. That is very clear in the Act. Such fees relate to the cost of searching and retrieving records and of photocopying. In practice, however, such fees are often not charged due to the additional burden of work imposed by the relevant provisions. It is, therefore, fair to say that the original intention of the Oireachtas that fees should be charged has not been given full effect.