Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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667. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the legal fees incurred on freedom of information requests received by his Department; the staff hours involved in the processing of freedom of information requests for the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9671/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not incurred any legal fees relating to Freedom of Information requests.

My Department does not maintain records in respect of staff hours involved in the processing of Freedom of Information requests and accordingly is not in a position to provide the data requested by the Deputy. The number of requests received in each of the last three years is set out in the following table.

You will note that there has been a significant increase year-on-year and while the number of requests does not necessarily reflect the number of hours spent processing such requests, the nature and scope of some requests is such that a single request can take days and even weeks to process.

The Freedom of Information Unit of my Department has 4 staff members as outlined in the following table.

The Unit coordinates Freedom of Information requests received by my Department and provides advice and guidance to Freedom of Information Decision Makers and Freedom of Information Reviewers in my Department.

Staff throughout my Department at the grade of Higher Executive Officer and equivalent generally act as Decision Maker for FOI requests pertaining to their business area. Staff at the grade of Assistant Principal Officer and equivalent generally act as Reviewer when a request for a review of the original decision is received.