Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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412. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the legal fees incurred on freedom of information, FOI, requests received by his Department; the staff hours involved in the processing of FOI requests for the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9684/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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No legal fees were incurred by the Department of Social Protection on FOI requests over the past three years.

The following FOI requests were received over the last 3 years:

FOI Requests Received

The total staff hours involved in the processing of FOI requests was not monitored separately over the past 3 years. However in 2016 my Department estimated an overall cost of processing FOI requests, based on the hourly rate of the total staff involved. This estimate was calculated on a 1% sample of requests received. The estimated cost, based on the 1% sample, was €340 per FOI request.