Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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81. To ask the Minister for Finance the resources in his Department to manage and respond to freedom of information, FOI, requests; the additional staff or staff hours he has made available towards the FOI unit in 2015; if he is satisfied that FOI request response times are adequate for his Department; if the workload from FOI requests has increased this year, and if so, by how much compared to 2014; the number of cases in 2015 where an internal review of an FOI decision was requested; the number of these that were submitted to the Information Commissioner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33504/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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In relation to resources in the Department allocated to the Freedom of Information Act, there is a dedicated FoI Unit and a decentralised decision-making process in the Department.  The role of the FoI Unit, which has 4 full-time staff, is to receive, allocate, monitor and administer the Freedom of Information requests but that Unit does not, generally, act as the Decision Maker in relation to Freedom of Information requests.

The decision making process revolves around the search, retrieval and assessment of records and whether to refuse, redact or release records in respect of each specific Freedom of Information request.  The requests are allocated to Decision Makers in the relevant unit to which the FoI request relates within my Department.  Decision Makers are usually Assistant Principal Officers but, in some cases, can be Principal Officers. The processing of Freedom of Information requests is part of the normal work of each division although there have been changes in the workload in more recent times.

There has been an significant increase in Freedom of Information requests to my Department, since the new Act came into force in October 2014.  At the end of September 2014, there had been 92 FoI requests but at the end of September 2015, the comparable number was 328 FoI requests - a 256% increase year-on-year.

The FoI requests received have been very broad in terms of their ambit and relate to issues that are extremely detailed from a legal and technical perspective.  In each case, there has to be a complete retrieval and review of all records before any FoI request be considered and a determination made in relation to release, redaction or exemption on each individual aspect of the FoI request.  Concentration of complex FoI requests in specific units, such as the Shareholding Management unit, based on staffing numbers and budget set at the beginning of the years, reduces the Department's effectiveness in relation to the FoI process.

This has, unfortunately, impacted on the ability of my Department to answer Freedom of Information requests within the required time limits.  82% of FoI requests had response times within the requisite time limits and some 58 FoI requests are outstanding.  I will be satisfied when the response time reaches 100% and in light of this situation, I have asked my Secretary General to prioritise clearance of the backlog.  I am informed by my Secretary General that in addition to the team of people working almost full-time on these FoI requests, banking inquiry and Commission of Investigation requests, further full-time resources have been retained to work exclusively on the outstanding FoI requests including 8 additional Decision Makers being directed to focus on the current backlog, which will be cleared as soon as practicable.

To-date during 2015, there has been 17 internal reviews (9 completed and 8 in progress) and 2 appeals with the Office of the Information Commissioner in respect of Freedom of Information requests.