Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The portal is welcome. I ask him to consider two things. Unfortunately, not all public bodies necessarily have the same practice as some Departments. Equally, not all Departments necessarily operate in the same way. Many of us have difficulty accessing guidance documents and circulars from particular Departments and we end up having to submit parliamentary questions in this regard. I acknowledge that is not the same kind of document but it is a parallel situation.

All I ask of the Minister of State is that, in his engagements with the relevant public bodies after this legislation has passed, he ensure that access to links and updates concerning what goes on the portal are shared as widely as possible. Portals will be useful for some of us because we will have a grasp of the totality of the information. Sometimes people will not go to a portal but to a public agency or body and having the relevant links in that context would be useful. If the Minister of State is not willing to consider our finely crafted amendments, then at least he might consider chatting to people in some of those public bodies. We might make some progress in this regard as well.