From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
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The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD, is pleased to confirm that the Government has approved a plan for a review of the Freedom of Information Act.
Speaking after Cabinet, Minister McGrath said:
“The FOI system is central to transparency and ensuring the public has confidence in the administration of the State. For the system to work effectively, members of the public and media need to be able to access information from public bodies. Since the current FOI legislation was enacted in 2014, we have witnessed major innovations in communications technology. While these have been broadly positive, they have transformed the ways in which individuals and public bodies interact with each other and it therefore represents a challenge to the existing FOI system.
"It is for this reason that a comprehensive review of the FOI framework is timely. This review will seek out ways in which the FOI model can be brought up to date to ensure that it is suitable for today’s needs.
“The review will be a collaborative process, providing a number of opportunities for interested stakeholders to make their voices heard. Following today’s approval by Cabinet, my Department will publish a roadmap document in the coming weeks, setting out the process for the review and the ways in which interested parties can get involved”.
Notes for Editors
The first Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1997. The current legislation was enacted in 2014.
The current system has shown itself to be robust and effective on its own terms. In most years, roughly four out of every five requests decided on by public bodies are granted in full or in part. Full independent review by the Information Commissioner is available where a requester is dissatisfied with a decision, however levels of uptake on this have remained consistently and notably low in recent years, amounting to around 1% of requests annually.
Demand has increased year on year, reaching a peak of 41,176 FOI requests processed in 2019, while in 2020 even at the height of the pandemic 32,652 requests were processed.
A public consultation on the scope of the review will commence later this year, which will allow stakeholders to shape the issues and themes that will be considered, as well as to highlight any concerns they may have or any elements they feel are working well. Alongside this, a project to estimate the cost of FOI to the exchequer and a customer satisfaction survey will be commenced before year end.
Early in 2022, based on the insights and themes identified from the scoping survey, the Department will publish a consultation paper and a full public consultation will be undertaken. This will be accompanied by regional events to raise awareness of the review and extend its reach. Other research work will be undertaken alongside this, including an assessment of international best practices, focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders.
It is intended that research work will be concluded by the middle of 2022, and a report and recommendations presented to the Government and published at that point.
ENDS