1. Section 47 of the FOI Act sets out the circumstances in which requesters are charged fees or deposits. Further details of these charges are contained in CPU Notice 11.

2. In summary, an application or 'up front' fee of €15 should be charged if a request is for information other than only personal information. A fee of €75 applies in respect of internal review applications other than an application in relation to a decision on a request for personal information or a decision to charge a fee or deposit. Reduced fees apply in respect of medical card holders.

3. Search and retrieval fees also apply with limited exceptions in respect of records released where the cost of search and retrieval and copying of such records exceeds €10.00. A deposit is chargeable when a public body estimates that the fee to be charged in respect of search and retrieval of records requested is likely to exceed €50.79.

4. There are circumstances where all or part of such fees or deposits must be returned to a requester. These include: a request or review application for which an 'up-front' fee was paid being withdrawn before a decision is made; the refusal of a request for which a search and retrieval deposit was paid; the amount of a deposit paid by a requester exceeding the final fee charged to him/her.

5. The CPU recommends adoption of the following procedure when fees or deposits are being charged:

· lodge the 'up-front fee' or deposit paid by a requester to a suspense account;

· when it is clear that no refund is due take the receipts into the relevant Vote under a miscellaneous Appropriations-in-Aid (A-in-A) category at year-end;

· refund a fee or deposit from the suspense account before receipts are taken into the Vote as an A-in-A. As the years go on, it will be clearer whether the receipts are of a sufficiently large volume to justify a dedicated A-in-A category in the Estimate and Vote account.

6. Every attempt should be made to clear the suspense account by year end and individual items should be cleared out of suspense during the year as soon as practicable. (Please see relevant extract regarding suspense accounts from Public Financial Procedures.)

7. Departments/Offices are also advised to keep records on an annual basis of the total amounts of fees and deposits charged and refunded under Section 47: this will facilitate the provision of details on FOI charges for annual reports and enable prompt responses to queries relating to such matters.

8. Individual Departments/Offices may have general procedures for recording and accounting for receipts, and for periodic reconciliation of amounts received. FOI Units should consult with their own Finance Units and/or Internal Audit Units to determine any such requirements.


FOI Central Policy Unit
July 2004