Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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74. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of FOI requests his Department has received since January 2018; the number that were appealed, refused and granted, respectively; the costs that were applied; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25968/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of the number of FOI requests received by my Department from 1 January 2018 to 11 June 2018 are outlined in the following table.

An appeal of an FOI decision by my Department can be made by seeking an Internal Review of the matter. The appeal will involve a complete reconsideration of the matter by a senior member of staff of my Department and a decision will be communicated within three weeks. My Department received three requests for an Internal Review in the period in question.

An appeal of an Internal Review decision can be requested by writing to the Office of the Information Commissioner. To date, my Department has not received notification from the OIC of any external reviews for the period in question.

There are no charges for submitting a FOI request. However, in respect of non-personal requests, other charges may be applied for the time spent finding records and for any reproduction costs incurred by my Department in providing the material requested, for example a search and retrieval fee. The amount charged by my Department for such costs for the period in question was €130.00.