Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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172. To ask the Taoiseach the number of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department in 2012 and 2013; the number of requests for which a search and retrieval fee was sought; the maximum fee sought by his Department in respect of a request received and the number of requests not proceeded following the non payment of the search and retrieval fee sought; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2261/14]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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All Freedom of Information requests received in my Department are processed by designated officials in accordance with the FOI Acts. In the case of non-personal requests the legislation specifies that a fee shall be charged equal to the estimated cost of search, retrieval and copying of records concerned.

The details requested for the years specified are set out in the table below. The maximum fee sought by my Department in this period in respect of a request received was for €2,681.60.

While this request was withdrawn, the request for information was handled outside of FOI and information provided to the requester.

Given that the scale of such fees depend on the volume of records involved, my Department endeavours to assist requesters to refine requests that are very broad to keep fees to a minimum.