Annual Report 2008 - Text

Fees Received

Up-front application fees for certain FOI requests, internal reviews and applications for review by my Office came into effect on 7th July 2003. Where a request for information other than the personal information of the requester is made, the fees payable are:

  • €15 for an FOI request (reduced to €10 for medical card holders and their dependants)
  • €75 for a request for internal review of an FOI decision (reduced to €25 for medical card holders and their dependants)
  • €150 for an application for review of an FOI decision by my Office (reduced to €50 for medical card holders and their dependants)
  • €50 for an application, by the third party to whom the records relate, for a review by my Office of an FOI decision to grant public interest access to records, following section 29 consultation procedures.

During 2008, my Office received 121 applications for review where a fee was paid. The total amount received in application fees by my Office in 2008 was €15,350, of which €5,400 was refunded for various reasons leaving a total received of €9,950.

Refunds totalling €5,400 were issued for the following reasons:

  • €5,100 because the applications in question were either rejected as invalid, withdrawn or settled;
  • €150 because the public body had not issued a decision or internal review decision within the time limits and was therefore of 'deemed refusal' status (section 41 of the FOI Act refers) which does not attract an application fee; and
  • €150 because it was an overpayment.

Many applicants to my Office are not aware that an application for review of an FOI request which involves a request for access to information other than the personal information of the applicant attracts an application fee. Where such an application is received, it is not a valid application until such time as the appropriate fee is paid. In 45 instances in 2008, my Office wrote to the applicant to say that a fee would apply if the information requested was other than personal information relating only to themselves. Generally, the applicants concerned paid the prescribed fee. In some cases, applicants varied the scope of their application by confining it to the personal information relating only to themselves and thus removing the element of the application attracting a fee. A number of applications (10) were deemed invalid on the basis that the appropriate fee had not been paid.

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