Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I have been listening to the Taoiseach's replies to Deputy Kenny and I am still not clear why it was necessary to set up a new website, given that the Government already has the www.gov.ie and the www.irisoifigiuil.ie websites for official purposes. There are also separate departmental websites for each Department and a citizens' information website. What was intended to be provided on this website that could not be made available on existing sites?

I note that there was a visit by a delegation from the Chinese Government recently but the Taoiseach did not do any media interviews following the visit. Instead, he chose to be interviewed by an officer of the Government information services for the www.merrionstreet.ie website, with the interview posted on the site. Is it intended to use that website more frequently for interviews where Ministers or the Taoiseach will be interviewed by officers of the Government information services? This would be as opposed to doing direct interviews with the public media.

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