Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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288. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of freedom of information requests received by his Department in each of the years 2013 to 2017; the average time taken in these years to complete the requests by his Department; the number of requests to his Department for these years that ran beyond the deadline for the request; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6895/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The following table gives details of the number of FOI requests received in each of the past five years:

My Department does not routinely collate the information in relation to the average time taken to complete requests in a given year.

However, in respect of 2017, an analysis of requests received by my Department up to 30 November 2017 was carried out. This analysis indicated that a total of 339 Freedom of Information requests had been received up to that date. Just over 90% of those requests had been completed either within the twenty day period laid down in the Act or within an agreed extension period.

While every effort is made within my Department to respond to requests within the allocated twenty day time frame, due to the demands on the resources of my Department, or the need for third party consultation, or the volume of material to be examined, it is sometimes necessary to extend the period of reply.