The Freedom of Information legislation was enacted on 21 April 1997. It was applied to local authorities and health boards on 21 October 1998. Since then, the Act has encompassed more public bodies.

The Freedom of Information legislation establishes three statutory rights:

• A legal right for each person to access information held by public bodies.
• A legal right for each person to have official information relating to him or her amended where it is incomplete, incorrect or misleading.
• A legal right to obtain reasons for decisions affecting oneself.

Introduction of Fees

A new Act, the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act, was introduced in 2003. This saw the introduction of up-front fees. For applications relating to non-personal information, an application fee of €15 must accompany the request, or a charge of €10 for medical card holders.