Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has gone a lot of the way. At the end of this process, I am sure there will be an issue or two, but generally, out of all the sections in the legislation, it will have fairly substantial cross-party support.

My only other issue is directly related to this, but the Minister cannot do much about it. It refers to the question of data. The Minister represents Wexford which, like my own, is a rural constituency. Not only are there parts of Wexford, Laois and several other countries that do not have adequate broadband for citizens to avail of this open data to check on Government bodies but, while there is a mix of broadband services available, there are large parts of the Minister's constituency where there is not even a mobile telephone signal. I am sure the Minister loses his signal in some parts of his county - in parts of mine, I do. I am only saying one must enable citizens access this information. While this is not within the Minister's remit, I should point out that open data will only be as good as the communication highways to allow citizens get at the data.

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