Some government departments have had no applications for non-personal files since the €15 fee was introduced by Charlie McCreevy, the finance minister. Others have seen fivefold decreases in requests.
McCreevy’s own department has earned just €45 from the levy with three FOI requests so far. It usually gets 25 a month.
The charge, introduced on July 7, only applies to non-personal information. The number of requests for personal files shows no change.
The Department of Health gets the most requests for information under FOI, with 32 applications a month on average last year. Since July 7, it has received 18 requests but only 10 of those including the fee.
The Department of Justice usually gets 25 applications a month for non-personal files but it has taken only €60 in fees for four requests.
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Some departments have had no fee-based requests at all — including Foreign Affairs, and Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Others have had just one, including the Department of Enterprise, the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, and the Department of Defence.
The Department of the Taoiseach has had two.
The cost of bringing a case to Emily O’Reilly, the information commissioner, is now €150 and her office has also seen a decline in non-personal requests since the charges were introduced.
There was a surge of applications to O’Reilly’s office before July 7, with 61 cases coming in. Since then there have been 34 applications, 20 from the same group that has not paid the charge.
Yesterday Richard Bruton, Fine Gael’s finance spokesman, said the fall-off in FOI applications was depressing but not surprising, and promised to scrap the fees if his party is returned to power.
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“We are opposed to charging a fee, which is a step back to old-style politics,” Bruton said.
McCreevy has defended the charges on the basis that it costs €400 to process each request. Files released by his department last week, ironically under the FOI, showed that officials originally suggested a fee of €20 to the minister.
The information commissioner’s office is now studying a possible loophole in the act that could mean people get their money back if their application relates to a matter of national importance.
The Department of Finance said last week this clause only applies to search and retrieval fees. Civil servants can charge up to €20.95 an hour for searching out files.
But this interpretation is likely to be challenged. Bruton said: “It is certainly arguable that the national interest relief could be sought in respect of the new charges.”