Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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383. To ask the Minister for Health the number of freedom of information requests his Department has received in the past eight years; the number of which were accepted without further escalation and not accepted respectively; the number requested which were not accepted that were escalated to the Information Commissioner; the number of which the Information Commissioner ruled in favour of the person requesting the freedom of information; the number of which the Information Commissioner ruled against his Department; the number his Department appealed to the High Court; the number the High Court ruled against his Department in favour of the applicant; the number which were then brought to the Court of Appeal by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9293/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department processes all Freedom of Information requests received and has dealt with a total of 2,179 requests in the period from 2010 to 2017 inclusive. As all requests are dealt with, on receipt, none have been escalated to the Office of the Information Commissioner as a result of not having been processed.

Details of finalised, non-personal requests received over the past 5 years can be accessed on my Department's website.

The Office of the Information Commissioner has reviewed 18 decisions made by my Department, one of which was annulled by the Office of the Information Commissioner and appealed by my Department to the High Court. The High Court affirmed the decision made by my Department.

The Office of the Information Commissioner are responsible for monitoring the operation of Freedom of Information by all public bodies and statistics are published in the Information Commissioners Annual Report, which is avaiable on their website (www.oic.gov.ie).