John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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418. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of freedom of information requests received by his Department to date in 2017; the number that were fully or partially granted; and the number of requests that were refused. [51844/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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As of 30 November, my Department has received 368 requests under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. Data in respect of these FOI requests are set out in the following table. Full or partial refusals were based on the exemptions in the Act.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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419. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of freedom of information requests received by his Department to date in 2017; the number for which the period of consideration was completed within four weeks of receipt of the request; and the number for which the period of consideration was extended by up to four weeks in view of the fact that the necessary resources to complete the request within the original timeframe were not available, in tabular form. [51861/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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As of 30 November 2017, my Department received 368 requests under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, of which 307 are finalised and the remaining 61 are currently being processed in accordance with the provisions of the Act. 

Section 14 of the FOI Act allows the standard 4 week time limit for dealing with requests to be extended only in certain very limited circumstances, as follows:

- where the request relates to such a number of records that compliance with the standard 4 week time period is not reasonably possible, or

- where the number of other FOI requests relating to the particular record(s) sought or to information corresponding to that to which the request relates, are such that compliance with the standard 4 week time period is not reasonably possible.

My Department availed of these provisions in the case of eight FoI requests, as set out in the following table.