This article is from page 14 of the 2008-05-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
REQUESTS for information from Clare County Council under the Freedom of Information Act have dwindled from 94 in 2002 to just 39 AUlOwe
And councillor Tom Prendeville (FF), who asked for the figures for last night’s meeting, said that it is “notable that in 2007 we are listing 30 per cent of the applications we Sr hag OOO ae
The councillor said that FOI re- quests had “gone down to a virtual trickle” and added that he believed that the introduction of fees for the service in 2003 “and the claiming of exemptions has acted as a barrier to the public. At a time of mistrust I would be concerned that the gov- ernment are standing over legisla- tion which appears exclusory,’ Cllr Prendeville told the meeting.
Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) said he supported the Fiannan Fail council-
lor. “The Freedom of Information Act was introduced for one reason and one reason only – transparency. Since costs were introduced, enquir- ies have gone down. We can put no price on the availability of legitimate information.”
Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that when forming Government the charges for FOI queries were “a major bone of contention’, for the Greens. “But Fianna Fail are in no way in favour of abolishing them be- cause the Civil Service hated it (the Freedom of Information Act) from the first moment.”
Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said that while he agreed there shouldn’t be a charge for legitimate information “there are vexatious requests which can cost tens of thousands of euro”.
The information on FOI queries which council officials compiled for the meeting also showed that in every year, the majority of queries concerned planning issues.
The second largest number of que- ries concerned roads and the third were seeking information about housing matters.
Corporate Services and Finance elicited 44 and 22 queries respec- tively and there were 55 environ- mental queries. Water services were the subject of 22 queries and human resources, 20. There were just two queries concerning motor tax and one concerning the library service.
So far this year, the freedom of information officer has received 19 queries, seven of which are still be- ing processed.
Since January 2002, the council has fully answered 114 FOI requests, part answered 91 and refused 110.
Ten queries were transferred, 18 were withdrawn and 52 were DOME OLOE
Exemptions because of sensitive information and other exempt areas under the act were claimed in 310 Or ose