THERE WERE OVER 1,800 Freedom of Information requests made to departments in 2013, according to figures released last week.

The figures, from a number of parliamentary questions, reveal that, out of the 12 departments which provided details, the largest number of requests were received by the Department of Justice and Equality at 541.

However figures for the Department of Social Protection may come out higher at year’s end as there were 1,684 in 2012. Most of these were personal requests and details for these types of requests in 2013 were not provided. A figure similar to last year would bring 2013′s figures closer to last year’s total number of 3,946 requests.

In a number of cases, a search and retrieval fee, to compensate for the time spent looking for and compiling the information, was charged. The highest fee sought in 2013 was €13,450 in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Minister Richard Burton explained that this related to “a request that was extremely broad in scope”.

“In that case, the requester was afforded an opportunity to refine the wording of the relevant request in order to reduce or eliminate this fee,” he said. “However, the requester has not engaged in any further correspondence on the matter. This was the only instance in 2013 that a request did not proceed on the basis of a request for a ‘search and retrieval’ fee.”

A fee of €863.75 was also sought by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in respect of one request and one of €3,226 was sought in the Department of Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Last month, Minister Brendan Howlin withdrew controversial amendments to the FOI Bill which would have seen changes to the way charges were calculated.

Read: Government backtracks on FOI Bill amendment on charges>