Fees

Application Fees

There is no fee for requesting records that only contain personal information about yourself.

A fee of €15 must accompany your request for any records that contain more than just your own personal information.  A reduced fee of €10 applies in relation to such requests if you are covered by a medical card.

A fee of €75 must accompany most applications for internal review of a decision made by us.  A reduced fee of €25 applies if you are covered by a medical card.

There is no fee for internal review applications if the original records requested contain only your own personal information or if you wish for a review of a decision to impose a fee or deposit.

A standard fee of €150 must accompany an appeal to the Information Commissioner to review a decision relating to non-personal information.  A reduced fee of €50 applies if you are covered by a medical card or you are a third party whose information the Council decides to release on public interest grounds.

Search and Retrieval and Copying Fees

The FOI Acts allow us to charge you for the time spent finding records and for any photocopying costs incurred in providing the material requested.  It is unlikely that we will charge any fees in relation to personal records, except where a large number of records are involved.     

Fees for search, retrieval and copying of records are set by the Department of Finance and are currently at the following levels:

• €20.95 per hour spent searching for records;
• €0.04 per sheet for a photocopy;
• €0.51 for a 3½” computer diskette;
• €10.16 for a CD-ROM.

A deposit may be payable where the total fee is likely to exceed €50.79.  In these circumstances, the Council will, if requested, assist in amending the request so as to reduce or eliminate the fee.

Reduced Fees and Waivers

We will not charge fees for the search, retrieval and copying of records if the cost of collecting that fee would be greater than the fee itself.  In practice, this means that we will waive any fees of less than €10.

Where the information would be of particular assistance to the understanding of an issue of national importance we may waive or reduce the search, retrieval and copying fee and the deposit.