I refer to the request which you have made under the Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003 for records held by this Department/Body. I refer also to the acknowledgement of your request which was sent to you on [Enter the date of the acknowledgement letter].

I am now writing to you to advise as to the costs of your request. One such cost is that of locating and gathering together from within this Department/Body the records you have sought. This process is called 'search and retrieval' in the Act (see section 47 attached).

After careful consideration and consultations, I estimate that the services of [x] staff member(s) for [y] hours will be the minimum efficiently required to complete the 'search and retrieval' work on your request. The prescribed amount chargeable for each such hour is €20.95 resulting in an overall fee of €[ ]

Where the 'search and retrieval' fee exceeds €50.79 the Act requires that I send this formal estimate to you. I am also required to seek from you the payment of a deposit. Therefore, you are required to pay such a deposit in the amount of €[ ] at this stage. Payment should be made by way of Bank Draft, Money Order, Postal Order or personal cheque made payable to ]Name of Department/Body]. The payment should be forwarded to the undersigned at your earliest opportunity.

The actual 'search and retrieval' work to be carried out will not commence until the deposit is paid. You should also note that this notice suspends the running of the time limit for our final decision on your request for access to the documents. That time limit will commence running again only if and when the deposit is paid.

Please let me know if you wish to explore possible amendments to your request which might reduce or eliminate the deposit and/or fee in this matter. A separate course open to you now is to appeal this decision to impose the stated deposit and fee. This appeal can be made in writing to the Freedom of Information Unit [address] or alternatively by sending an e-mail to [address]. In that event, you would normally have 4 weeks from receipt of this notification in which to make the appeal. This Department/Body will, however, allow the appeal to be made late in appropriate circumstances. It would assist if your letter of appeal referred to the present letter and stated the reasons for your appeal.

Should you have any questions or concerns in relation to this matter, please contact me by telephone on number [x].