Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Quinn and Mr. Allen for presenting before the committee. I do not have any questions. I am just going to make some comments regarding this subject. The outgoing strategic statement was excellent. Its layout was excellent, as was the way it was possible to measure its delivery. I greatly appreciate the Department and its engagement with this committee in the last four years. It was exemplary and much talked about across all the Oireachtas committees, and I hope that will continue. We had strong engagement and a strong professional working relationship with the staff of the Department. I also acknowledge and thank the outgoing Secretary General, John McCarthy, and all his assistant secretaries for their work and engagement. It really contributed to a positive attitude in this committee and in the Department. I must state that point.

Moving on to some key issues, I note that Ms Quinn spoke in her presentation about climate action. There must be a strong emphasis on the sustainable development goals. That is an important feature, and it recognises the three-legged aspect of this Government, namely, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, and their priorities. It also ties in with the agreed programme for Government. I would now like to leave some comments on key issues with Ms Quinn.

We should not lose sight of Oireachtas engagement. I would also like to see great emphasis in the strategy on that aspect. I refer to legitimate engagement with this committee and with the public representatives who represent their constituents across the country. It is important that we keep sight of the need for timely responses to representations.

Open government is and should always be to the fore. I would like to see an emphasis in the strategy on how the Department and its officials will promote open government because that is an important part of any democracy. I would also like to see greater emphasis and focus on freedom of information, and how people can see it. That needs to be clearly stated in the strategy. We need to facilitate and not frustrate people seeking clarification or freedom of information, and that happens from the top down. It is not that people are agitators, objectors or asking questions for vexatious reasons. It is important that we support openness and transparency in local government.

I would also like to see an emphasis on and stronger clarity regarding language concerning protected disclosures. It will be recalled, and known, that there is an obligation on every Department to keep a register of protected disclosures and have an open process to facilitate access to those open disclosures. A freedom of information log is required in every Department as well. In the last few days, I took the liberty of looking at some Departments, and some have not posted that information for two years. There is a statutory obligation on every Department to have a freedom of information log on its website. I would like a focus to be kept on that area. I am not suggesting anything about the witnesses' Department, because it is one of the better ones.

I also want to address the issue of what is in a name. For some reason the Department, the civil servants, the Government or someone else took a decision to drop the word "housing" from the name of the Department.

It is a key word in the work. As I still have time, I ask for some background on this. We used to have the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. I did not see why we could not have added "heritage" to it. It is very important. I ask the powers that be to look again at incorporating the word "housing" into the name of the Department. These are just comments and I am not asking the witnesses to feed back too much. I thank the witnesses and the staff in the Department for the very positive engagement they have had with the committee.