Under Section 36(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, the Information Commissioner has recently carried out an investigation in relation to the practices and procedures adopted by public bodies for the purposes of compliance with the provisions of the Act generally. My Department was one of the public bodies selected for inclusion in the investigation and co-operated fully with the Office of the Information Commissioner in this regard.
The volume of FOI requests received by my Department on a yearly basis has grown steadily since commencement, with a total of 452 requests received in the year 2000 and in excess of 230 requests received this year to date. While the Act reflects best administrative practice, difficulties have been encountered in meeting the statutory deadlines.