Publishing the report, Information Commissioner Ger Deering said 46,277 requests were submitted to public bodies in 2025, including government departments, health bodies and local authorities. The FOI Act provides the public with rights including access to records held by public bodies.

The Health Service Executive received the highest number of requests, with 14,760, followed by the Department of Social Protection with 2,610.

The Office of the Information Commissioner received 689 applications in 2025 seeking reviews of decisions made under the FOI Act, most of them relating to refusals of access to records. The number of review applications has increased by 53 per cent since the 2014 legislative changes.

The report also highlights a rise in cases involving requests deemed potentially frivolous, vexatious or part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests.

In one case, the commissioner found that 11 requests submitted to Údarás na Gaeltachta over four days formed part of a pattern of manifestly unreasonable requests and were vexatious. In another, requests made to the HSE were found to have been used tactically in pursuit of a grievance and amounted to an abuse of the FOI process.

The report also notes positive feedback from the commissioner’s outreach and engagement programme, which supports public bodies in improving FOI decision-making.