Opposition parties have called for the Government to reverse changes made to the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) after the Ombudsman today said there had been a massive decline in applications since fees were introduced.
The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, issued her annual report today and also released a report specifically examining the impact of amendments to the Freedom of Information Act made by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in April 2003.
She found that since fees for FOI applications had been introduced, requests had fallen across all categories with inquiries from the media down by 75 per cent.
Green Party finance spokesperson Mr Dan Boyle
The Green Party and Labour said the figures show the Government had succeeded in a deliberate policy of eroding the public's access to information.
Green Party finance spokesperson Mr Dan Boyle said: "This enormous reduction in requests raises serious questions about the quality of our democracy, in the aftermath of this deliberately restrictive legislation.
"The Government is no doubt happy that its intention to severely restrict information requests, and so make the Government less accountable to the people, has been successful."
Labour Party finance spokesperson Ms Joan Burton called on the Government to immediately act on the recommendations contained in Ms O'Reilly's report.
"Fianna Fáil was never comfortable with the whole principle of freedom of information and were unhappy that the media in particular used the Act in full to expose incidences of gross incompetence and mismanagement by the Fianna Fáil/PD government," Ms Burton said.
Among the Ombudsman's recommendations was a suggestion that fees for FOI requests, which are €15 per application, should be waived if the information is in the public interest or comes from the media.