Freedom of Information Act requests fall 20% - report

Freedom of Information (FoI) requests fell by one-fifth last year, although use of the legislation by journalists has recovered somewhat, according to the latest annual report from Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly.

This is in spite of the fact that another 130 public bodies were added to the scope of the FoI Act last year, bringing to over 600 the number of bodies whose records the public have the right to access.

In a downbeat assessment of the legislation 10 years after it was enacted, Ms O'Reilly acknowledged that the consensus that existed in support of FoI in the mid-1990s has since withered.

She outlined a series of concerns about the operation of the Act, including the continuing exclusion of many public bodies from its scope, a failure by the Government to consult with her office before making changes to FoI and the deterrent of high fees on use of the legislation.

The Act was still working, though not as effectively as it could be, she concluded: "Perhaps it needs a champion, but it's not my role to be an advocate for FoI."

Last year, 11,804 requests were made to public bodies, down from 14,616 in 2005 and 12,597 in 2004.

Most of the decline is accounted for by a drop in requests by former residents of industrial schools for personal information from the Department of Education.

Requests for other types of information rose, and the proportion made by journalists increased from 6.5 per cent in 2005 to 10 per cent last year.

However, media requests are still running at just half the level of six years ago, before the Government introduced fees for FoI applications and appeals and made other changes.

The Department of Education was the recipient of the biggest number of FoI requests (1,108), followed by the southern, western and southeastern division of the Health Service Executive, the Department of Justice and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The backlog of uncompleted appeals fell to 301 by last December, from 339 at the start of the year.