The Freedom of Information Act is being abused by people making multiple requests and others intent on "causing trouble", an Oireachtas committee has been told. A single "multiple requester" has cost one Government Department more than £100,000 in one year, the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Martin Cullen, told the Committee on Finance and the Public Service yesterday.
Mr Cullen, who was presenting a review of the workings of the Act, identified the most costly "multiple requester" as Mr Michael Grange, of Acorn Associates. Mr Grange is a Dublin consultant who has made about 200 requests of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
"Apart from the direct financial costs, this kind of action distracts the attention of officials from important work and reduces the resources available for other clients of the body."
He said that if not addressed the activities of a small number of "multiple requesters" could lead to an erosion of confidence in the Act. The structure of the legislation, which came into force in April 1998, did not take into account the potential for individuals to use multiple requests to cause "enormous disruption" to public bodies.
Others, while not seeking to abuse the Act, were throwing large requests at a public body "without any real regard for the costs". One body received more than 1,000 FoI requests, all for the same information.
He said an internal review by FoI officers in the Civil Service had made a number of proposals to deal with these abuses. It recommended a small basic fee per request: Mr Cullen suggested £5 or £10. The legislative category of "frivolous and vexatious" requests would be widened where the Act was being misused.
The review shows that more than 15,000 requests have been made under FoI in the first 20 months of operation. Almost half were for personal information. About 80 per cent of requests were granted.
Some 3 per cent of requests come from politicians, 12 per cent from staff members, 11 per cent from business, 15 per cent from journalists, and 60 per cent from "others".
RTE and TG4 are the next organisations to come under the remit of the Act from May.
