18 per cent rise in FoI requests

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to public bodies went up by 18 per cent last year, the first increase since 2005, according to the annual report of the Information Commissioner.

Much of the increase in demand for information, particularly from financial institutions, is a by-product of the economic downturn, according to the commissioner, Emily O’Reilly.

Launching her report for 2008, Ms O’Reilly said this morning that one of the by-products of the current economic crisis has been a sharp increase in public demand for transparency and accountability.

“As the public see the financial gains of the past decade slipping away there is a demand to know how the turnabout took place and how various public and private institutions behaved both during the boom and after it.”

Freedom of Information requests to the Department of the Taoiseach were up 84 per cent, while requests to the Department of Finance more than doubled, growing by 131 per cent. Requests to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment increased by 37 per cent.

Ms O’Reilly again criticised the continued exclusion of many public bodies from the scope of Freedom of Information legislation. “No matter how good FoI is, it is of no use for bodies not covered by the legislation.”

The commissioner noted that the Government had not added any more bodies this year to the list of those covered by the legislation, and that important bodies such as the Central Bank, Financial Service Regulatory Authority of Ireland and National Treasury Management Agency remained beyond the reach of the Act.

“Leaving such important bodies out of the potential for scrutiny is both unnecessary and undesirable,” she said. “A blanket ban is not required.” Ms O’Reilly said she appreciated that extremely sensitive data was sometimes handled by these bodies but she expressed the view that the balancing provisions of the act provided sufficient protection.

She pointed out that important tender documents for big infrastructural projects cannot be accessed using FoI from the National Development Finance Agency but similar documents can be accessed from Government departments and local authorities.

According to the report, 12,672 FoI requests were made last year. Some 8,229 of these were requests of personal information, up 9 per cent on the previous year. Journalists are also making more use of the legislation; 15 per cent of all FoI requests came from the media last year, compared to 8 per cent in the previous year).

Ms O’Reilly said her impression was that the type of information being sought reflected a moer thoughtful use of the Act and its application to help ensure proper accountability. She singled out the use of FoI in uncovering the level of spending at FAS.

The various divisions of the HSE accounted for over 4,200 FoI requests last year, or one-third of the overall total. The Department of Justice was the Government department with the most requests, 718.

Some 55 per cent of requests were granted, 22 per cent were part-granted and 12 per cent were refused.