Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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416. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is satisfied in the context of the freedom of information publication scheme that all logs are published and up to date in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2014; if not, the reason they are not published; and if he will update them as a matter of priority. [36126/21]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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417. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount collected on an annual basis since the Freedom of Information Act 2014 commenced in respect of fees attached to freedom of information requests submitted to his Department. [36144/21]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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418. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of freedom of information requests refused by his Department since the Freedom of Information Act 2014 commenced for the reason that search and copy costs would exceed the maximum threshold; the number of requests that were subsequently granted following engagement with the requester to narrow the scope of the request; and the costs associated with same. [36162/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 416 to 418, inclusive, together.

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was established on 2nd August 2020. Since its establishment, my Department has refused no FOI requests on the basis that the search, retrieval & copying fees exceeded the threshold. It has not been necessary to engage with any requesters to narrow the scope of the request and the costs associated with same. My Department has collected no fees in respect of search, retrieval and copying fees and no fees in relation to Internal Reviews of original decisions.

My Department has an administrative shared service arrangement in place with the Department of Education for the provision of FOI Services. Our practice is for routine publication of appropriate information in accordance with the Model Publication Scheme as agreed cross departmentally, available on the Department of Education website. All of the information within the scheme is under constant revision to ensure that it is kept relevant and up to date by the respective business units as well as the FOI Unit. For the purposes of the Disclosure Log, there will be separate disclosure logs published for both my Department and the Department of Education for 2021.