Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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734. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of FOI requests his Department has received since January 2018; the number of refusals; the number that have been appealed and that are ongoing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30561/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Freedom of Information (FOI) data requested is set out in the table that follows. 

In relation to your request for data concerning appeals, I have included data on both internal reviews carried out within my Department and on appeals to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC). If a requester is not satisfied with the response of my Department to any aspect of his/her request for information he/she can seek to have the decision re-examined. The internal review of an FOI decision is carried out by a more senior member of staff within my Department. Following the outcome of the internal review, if a requester is unhappy with that decision, he/she has the right to appeal the decision to the OIC.

The figure in the “ongoing” column arises as, under the FOI Act, my Department has in most cases four weeks to make a decision and issue a response. There are also a number of provisions in the FOI Act which allow for the completion of requests outside of the standard four week time frame, including where the request is for a large number of records and the requirement for third party consultation.