Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly has highlighted the significant fall in the use of the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) since the introduction of fees in May 2003.
There was a 50 per cent drop-off in the total usage of FoI in 2004 on the previous year. The number of requests made to public bodies fell by 32 per cent and requests to her office by 61 per cent.
Ms O’Reilly reiterated her belief that a review of the FoI Act and fees should be undertaken. In particular, she stressed her concern about the high cost of appeals to her office and the impact this has on the overall effectiveness of the legislation.
The commissioner, speaking at the unveiling of her annual report for 2004, said the declines are "primarily attributable to the imposition of request and appeal fees".
Last year the commissioner published an in-depth report on the effects of the fees. At that time she indicated that Ireland was "substantially out of line with practice abroad" on fees for reviews of decisions, and she called for a "reappraisal" of the €150 charge that applied to reviews carried out by her office.
Of seven jurisdictions studied by Ms O'Reilly, including several in the United Kingdom and Australia, only three imposed an application fee for FoI requests. None charged for internal review, and only one (Ontario) charged for an application to the Information Commissioner's Office - at a fee of less than half the Irish one.