The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, said yesterday it stood to reason that, when information was restricted under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) and charges came into effect, there would be fewer requests.
Ms O'Reilly was commenting on figures which showed a fall in the number of FoI requests to Government Departments since the new curtailed Act came into effect.
The total number of requests dropped by 29 per cent in the three months following the introduction of the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act on April 11th compared to the previous three months.
The figures were obtained by Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, in parliamentary questions.
The commissioner said there were a number of caveats; for example, there was no break-down between personal and official information.
She would like to see figures for the same time last year and look at the break-down of why the figures were higher in January.
"But with those caveats, I would say it stands to reason that when information is restricted, and certainly when the charges come in, there will be fewer requests. It will be worth looking at the figures in three months," Ms O'Reilly said.
The charges will be brought in next Monday. FoI requests will cost €15 each, while appeals to the commissioner will cost €150 a time. Requests for personal information and appeals will be free.
Mr Kenny said the figures for April, May and June were 1,767, a fall from 2,498 requests for the first three months of the year.
"The Government has now achieved its objective of strangling this essential instrument of openness and transparency," he said.
These figures were a reversal of the trend in FoI requests. In 2002 requests to Government Departments were up 11.5 per cent on the previous year, he said.
The only Department to see a rise in applications in recent months was Education and Science. This was due to applications from former residents of industrial reformatory schools.
"These statistics prove conclusively that the Government's gutting of the FoI has been successful in reducing the use which the public are making of this essential piece of legislation," Mr Kenny said.