Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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225. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of contracted staff, full-time and part-time, employed by her Department, and by any body or entity under the aegis of the Department, who are specifically assigned to processing freedom of information requests (details supplied), in each of the past three years; the Civil Service grade of each; the number of freedom of information requests dealt with by her Department, or any body or entity under its aegis, in each of the past three years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27241/24]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Data Protection, FOI and Records Management Unit in my Department has 3 full-time permanent civil servants with a number of responsibilities including the responsibility for processing requests made to this Department under the Freedom of Information Act.

To date, and in each of the past three years, the administrative grades in the FOI Unit are as follows:

• 1 Assistant Principal (Information Officer)
• 1 Higher Executive Officer
• 1 Executive Officer

*includes the National Archives of Ireland

My Department is fully committed to providing a professional service in relation to processing requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

With regard to bodies under the aegis of my Department, the information sought by the Deputy is an operational matter for those bodies and not something for which I have direct day-to-day responsibility.

Notwithstanding this, my Department reports annually to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP and Reform (DPENDR) on the number of FOI requests processed by bodies under the aegis. The information submitted to this Department and provided to DPENDR for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 is set out in tabular form below. This number of FOI requests processed for 2024 will be submitted in early 2025.