Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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102. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the total number of freedom of information requests submitted to his Department in 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024; the total number of such requests that were rejected in their entirety; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37606/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The total number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to my Department in the years 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, and the total number of FOI requests that were rejected are set out in the table below:

The majority of these refusals were on the basis of what is termed an administrative refusal under Section 15(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2014, which provides that a Freedom of Information request may be refused to be granted where the record concerned does not exist, or cannot be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain its whereabouts have been taken.

Other refusals by my Department are, for example, made under Section 29 of the Freedom of Information Act, where the request sought records that were subject to ongoing deliberative process; or Section 36, to protect commercially sensitive information of third parties.

Officials acting as Decision Makers on Freedom of Information requests received by my Department endeavour to take a proactive approach to the handling of Freedom of Information requests, engaging with the requesters to assist them further, which can include assisting in refining a request, or in directing requesters to other relevant public bodies, or pointing to information or records that are already in the public domain, for example, on the Department's website. In general the approach in the Department is to aim to proactively make information available to minimise the need for individuals to seek information through the FOI route.

Requesters are also always made aware of their right of appeal, if they are not satisfied with any FOI decision issued by my Department.