2201. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of FOI requests his Department, and each agency under his auspices, received in each year 2020 to 2025, and to date in 2026; the number that were refused on original decision; the number for which reviews were sought and the number of those reviews whereby the original decision was amended; the number for which subsequent appeals were submitted; the number of those appeals which resulted in an amendment to the original decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61047/26]

My Department is committed to fulfilling its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and to ensuring that requests are processed in an open, fair and timely manner.

The volume of FOI requests received by the Department has increased significantly in recent years. My Department received 1,522 FOI requests in 2025, representing an increase of 25% on the 1,216 requests received in 2024, which itself represented an increase of almost 30% on 2023 levels.

Despite this substantial growth in demand, my Department continues to process a high volume of requests while maintaining robust review and appeals mechanisms.

Consideration of all requests under the Act are made in accordance with the relevant provisions, exemptions and administrative refusal mechanisms as set out in the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

Decisions to refuse release of a record will often be on the basis that requested records do not exist within my Department or because the records are already in the public domain. My Department ensures that where a decision is made to refuse, the reason for such refusal is clear in the decision letter and the individual requester is made aware of their appeal rights.

Details of the number of FOI requests received by my Department, the number refused at original decision stage, the number of internal reviews sought and resulting in amendments to the original decision, and the number of appeals made to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and resulting changes are set out in the attached, at Appendix 1.

It should be noted that figures presented in Appendix 1 are recorded on the basis of the year in which the FOI request was received. As a result, internal reviews and appeals may be concluded in a subsequent year but are attributed to the year of receipt of the original request.

Details of FOI requests received by agencies under the remit of my Department are attached in Appendix 2.