James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Taoiseach, being new in office, will introduce a new way for the Government to do business. The programme for Government includes a commitment to improve the flow of information from Departments to Deputies. The portfolios announced yesterday included a range of digital responsibilities, including e-government, and various titles related to digital matters, yet every second time I ask a parliamentary question in this House or to a State agency, I receive a raft of paperwork in response. Very often a short memo states the relevant Department will be in touch and a letter is sent. Soon I will have enough of these missives to paper my entire office.

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The benefits of electronic communication need hardly be restated. They include efficiency, savings on costs such as print and postage and the cost to the Exchequer, not to mention the obvious environmental benefits of soft copy communication. If one was to be cynical, one might even think that it was designed to obfuscate the communication in this manner. Can the State lead by example? Can Government communications improve and move to the digital age? Will the Taoiseach issue a memo to Government to that effect?

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