Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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190. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the disclosures log made by his Department under freedom of information was last updated; if this is in line with the disclosure policy of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46466/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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My Department updates the FOI Disclosure Log at the end of each quarter plus forty working days to allow for extended FOI requests to be decided upon. Therefore the Log was recently updated, in October 2019 and now covers up to Q2 2019. It is provided in tabular format and is easily accessed on my Department’s website.

The policy is directly aligned with the guidance provided by the FOI Central Policy Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s 2015 Code of Practice for Freedom of Information for Public Bodies. All FOI requesters are apprised that summary information will be published regarding non-personal requests. The log only includes non-personal requests and provides summary information of accepted/valid requests as follows:

- Date of request

- Category of requester

- Description of the request

- Decision made

- Date of release

My Department takes a proactive approach to the publication of official information and regularly updates the ‘publication scheme’ in accordance with the “Model Scheme” provided for in section 8 of the FOI Act, 2014. This includes:

- General information about the Department

- Information about services provided or to be provided to the public

- Our decision making process for major policy proposals

- Financial Information

- Procurement information, and

- The Disclosure Log