Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 254: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of requests under the Freedom of Information Acts received by his Department in each year from 2002 to 2005 and to date in 2006; the amount of money received in application fees for each year; the amount of money received in information retrieval fees for each year; the percentage of requests coming from journalists in each year; the percentage of retrieval fees that were charged to journalists rather than members of the public; the percentage of requests from journalists for which a retrieval fee was charged; the percentage of requests from members of the public for which a retrieval fee was charged; the average retrieval fee charged; the median retrieval fee charged; the number of cases in which the retrieval fee was waived; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33714/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I have set out in the following table the information requested by the Deputy regarding the number of requests received, the amount of application fees collected and the percentage of requests received from journalists.

I should point out that payment of the normal application fee, currently €15, does not apply in a number of circumstances:

no fee is payable in respect of requests for personal information;

a reduced fee (currently €10) is payable in respect of requests for non-personal information, where the applicant is a medical card holder; and

fees are returned to the applicant in cases where the request can be dealt with outside of the Freedom of Information Acts.

The appropriate fee has been collected by my Department in all other cases since application fees were introduced in July 2003.

Our records do not distinguish between different classes of applicants, other than in terms of whether the request is for personal or non-personal information. The information in relation to journalists that is included in the table below, therefore, has been collated on the basis of requests received from known journalists or from those who identified themselves as journalists when submitting their request under the FoI Acts.

In cases where a search and retrieval fee is likely to be sought, it is normal practice in my Department to provide the applicant with an estimate of the fee and to request payment of a deposit. In such cases, however, Departmental officials would also offer to assist the applicant to reformulate the request so as to reduce or eliminate the amount of the deposit and/or the search and retrieval fee. The result has been that this Department has collected a search and retrieval fee in respect of only one FoI applicant, in the amount of €49-98, and that applicant was not a journalist.