Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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481. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the legal fees incurred on 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. [9683/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In response to the Deputy's question, my Department has not incurred any legal fees on FOI requests.  My Department has a dedicated FOI Unit, the staff of which receive, allocate, monitor and administer all FOI requests.  The requests are allocated to Decision Makers in the area relevant to the request and they conduct a complete retrieval and review of all relevant records for the request.  There has been a significant increase in the number of FOI requests received since 2014, as set out in the table below: