Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 209: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will list the nature and amount of fees charged for freedom of information requests prior to the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 2003; and to explain the current fees system for freedom of information requests. [12734/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Section 47 of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, inter alia, provides for the charging of a fee by a public body and for payment by the requester in respect of the grant of a Freedom of Information request of an amount equal to —

(a) the estimated cost of the search for and retrieval of the record concerned, and

(b) the estimated cost of any copy of the record made by the public body concerned for the requester concerned.

as determined by the head of the public body concerned.

Section 47 also provides for certain limitations and exemptions in respect of such fees. In summary these are:

No such search and retrieval fees can be charged when only personal information is contained in the record concerned unless the grant related to a significant number of records;

Copying charges shall be disregarded also if only personal information is contained in the record and it would not be reasonable, having regard to the means of the requester, to apply a charge;

Such fees could be waived or reduced when the record concerned would be of assistance to the understanding of a matter of national importance; and

Neither search and retrieval fees nor copying fees can be charged when the cost of collecting and accounting for the fee would exceed the amount of the fee.

The powers under Section 47 in respect of copying and search and retrieval fees were unaffected by the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act, 2003 and the amount prescribed for such fees have remained unchanged since the legislation first came into effect. These are:

Search and retrieval: €20.95 per hour

Copying charges

Photocopy per sheet: €0.04

Floppy disk: €0.51

CD Rom: €10.16

Radiograph: €6.35

In 2003 the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act introduced application fees for requests for non-personal information. The fees prescribed by Regulation under the amended Act are €15 for a Freedom of Information request for non personal information, €75 for an internal review of a Freedom of Information decision and €150 for an appeal to the Information Commissioner. A reduced application fee structure applies to persons in possession of medical cards. The reductions are as follows: initial request €10, internal review €25 and €50 appeal to the Information Commissioner.

According to the most recent information available to my Department contained in the Annual Report of the Office of the Information Commissioner for 2010, of 15,249 Freedom of Information requests received by public bodies in 2010, 10,688 related to personal information in respect of which application fees do not apply for the initial request or any internal review or appeal to the Information Commissioner.