Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will report on the operation of the amended Freedom of Information Act 2014; and if his attention has been drawn to the problems arising from the new fees regime. [5783/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am glad to report a number of very positive developments in the operation of FOI that have been brought about since the new FOI Act came into force on 14 October 2014.

- The upfront FOI application fee was abolished immediately following enactment.  This was accompanied by a significant re-design of the search and retrieval fees regime allowing for up to five hours search, retrieval and copying time at no charge and caps on the amount of such fees that can be charged.

- A Code of Practice on FOI has been published in tandem with the coming into effect of the new legislation.  The Code draws heavily on proposals made by a group of FOI experts.  It promotes best practice in the operation of FOI and seeks to bring about greater efficiency and consistency throughout public bodies in dealing with FOI requests.

- A single FOI Training Framework has been put in place which provides a panel of trainers from which FOI bodies can procure quality-assured training in a consistent and cost-effective manner.

- Over 1,000 civil and public servants have attended briefing sessions on the new legislation and Code of Practice.

- A new FOI Central Policy Unit website has been developed and is an important resource for public bodies and the general public.

- Work is underway on the development of a model publication scheme for FOI which I propose to make this year. 

Statistics on the operation of FOI during 2014 are being collected at present from FOI bodies and will be published in due course by the Office of the Information Commissioner.

In response to the Deputy's second point, my Department's attention has not been drawn to any specific problems for FOI users relating to the new reformed FOI fees regime.  Indeed, the abolition of the FOI application fee, the provision of uncharged 'search and retrieval' time and the capping of the overall level of search and retrieval fees has been received favourably by requesters.  

If the Deputy has been made aware of problems in this area and if she provides me with details of same, I will ask my officials to examine the matter and I can advise the Deputy of the outcome.