The Taoiseach rejected allegations that the Government was scaling down access to freedom of information requests.
Mr Ahern said officials in his Department had pointed out that there had been no change whatever in respect of personal requests.
"It seems that many people were involved in trawls or were seeking information just for the sake of doing so. Now that they are obliged to pay for such information, the position has changed. My main concern relates to personal information, in respect of which there does not seem to be any change."
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, claimed the Government's most spectacular success had been the strangulation of the Act. Requests to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism were down by 85 per cent. In the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the decline was 85 per cent; in the Department of Finance, 85 per cent; in the Department of Foreign Affairs, 72 per cent.
He asked Mr Ahern how he could account for a decline of 83 per cent in the number of requests from January to the end of last September in his own Department. The Taoiseach replied that his Department had received two freedom of information requests in October, bringing the total to 133. "This compares with 111 requests received by my Department for the same period in 2002. I cannot come to a conclusion, nor can the Deputy, until we can see a full year and compare like with like."
Asked by the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, how many requests had been received in October, 2002, Mr Ahern said he did not have the statistics for that month. "However, in January of this year, there were 20 requests, and there were nine in April just before the new regime came into play."
Mr Rabbitte claimed there was a pattern of a diminishing resort to the Act since the drastic changes introduced by the Government. "Is it not the case, as Deputy Kenny suggests, that the Government has effectively killed off, in certain areas of its operation, the Freedom of Information Act and put it beyond the reach of citizens in many instances? Will the Taoiseach confirm that the staff dealing with this issue in his Department have been transferred to other duties?"
Mr Ahern said that the staff in his Department dealt with requests as part of their ongoing duties. There was no dedicated staff.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said there was a direct connection between the charges put in place, which could amount to €240 on appeal, and the decline in the number of requests.
He added that, because of the Government's indemnity agreement, less than one-third of the 281 known documents held by the State were released to The Irish Times last month.
