Information Act put to costly test

A government department's decision to impose charges more frequently for Freedom of Information requests was influenced by the fact that half of the applications to the department came from one individual at a cost of more than £100,000.

A Dublin consultant, Mr Michael Grange, of Acorn Associates, has made almost 200 FoI requests to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment since the introduction of the Act in April last year.

While the requests have cost the department well in excess of £100,000, Mr Grange has to date only paid £37.50 in fees. Mr Grange/Acorn Associates has had 64 of the applications refused on the grounds that they were "frivolous or vexatious".

The Act allows bodies to charge "a fee of such amount as may be appropriate" having regard to the amount of work involved in retrieving documents which are released.

In an unreported response to a Dail question in June, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, told Ms Marian McGennis (FF) that Mr Grange/Acorn Associates had "sought a wide range of information on a variety of topics, but the majority of requests relate to prior dealings with FAS and extensive prior correspondence with my department and the then Department of Labour. My department has found it necessary to refuse 64 requests from Acorn Associates as frivolous or vexatious".

She said that her department had estimated the average cost of processing a request at £650.

Mr Grange has made 189 of the 426 requests received by the department to date. He has made 82 of the 95 internal appeals and 28 of the 32 appeals to the Information Commissioner relating to decisions of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Mr Grange, a management training specialist, could not be contacted yesterday.

The applications from Mr Grange exceed all those received by the department from the media. Ms Harney told Ms McGennis that, apart from Mr Grange/Acorn Associates, the other most frequent requesters were, "as one might expect, the national media".

She said that The Irish Times had made 57 requests, the Sunday Times 25, Phoenix six, the Sunday Tribune five and the Sunday Business Post three.

The total of fees paid up to June 25th, Ms Harney said, was: Acorn Associates, £37.50; The Irish Times, £34.10; the Sunday Times, £39.50; and the Sunday Tribune, £239.40.

Some latitude in deciding whether a request should incur fees is allowed under the provisions of the Act and policy varies between departments.

The Department of Justice receives the most FoI requests, followed by the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, the Department of Education and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.