Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is the philosophy behind what we were trying to do. People want to know what the Government is doing for them; they are not all that bothered about which Department or agency is actually doing it.

In terms of the open government partnership, the challenge of building a more open, transparent and accountable public governance unit in Ireland is being advanced through a range of reform initiatives led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The open data initiative is a key part of these activities. It is closely aligned with the public service reform plan, the ICT strategy, the Civil Service renewal plan and internationally and it is a core element of the EU-wide approach to the re-use of public sector information directive which has been transposed by Ireland. As a central policy Department, the data held in my Department relates mainly to its administrative functions, including for example, human resources and financial management and no high value datasets suitable for publication on the open data portal were identified. We are considering how best to design a process that creates an action plan that can implement the solutions that matter to the public. We will aim for a more focused plan aimed at supporting our broader reform efforts in addressing the needs of citizens. This all relates to the open government partnership. Better citizen engagement for better outcomes is a key part of the strategy for innovation and reform of our public service up to 2020. The ambition is to promote meaningful citizen engagement in policy making and in turn to increase the legitimacy of decision making, improve the public's knowledge and awareness of complex policy challenges, help decision makers to make better decisions which should lead to better policies and improvements in the quality of service provision.

We will soon launch a portal that will bring together all public consultations in one place. This will be the first step in giving greater visibility to how public consultations are run and whether the principles in the consultation guidelines are followed.

On freedom of information requests, I want to put on record and make it very clear that it has been the long-standing practice in my Department, in the cases of successive Taoisigh, including myself, that the Taoiseach, as political head of the Department, has no role whatsoever in processing such requests. Provision does exist for me to be asked for observations on whether something should be released but I can confirm that I have not been asked for such observations since I became Taoiseach. I had been asked as a Minister in other Departments.

When freedom of information requests are received in my Department, the functions of the general examination and primary decision-making are delegated to assistant principals and some higher executive officers. The function of internal review has been delegated to officials not below principal officer grade and all requests received are monitored by the Department's freedom of information liaison officer. There are often reasons freedom of information requests are refused. This is because the matters under request are confidential, often relating to Cabinet. Sometimes they are commercially sensitive in nature, sometimes they are part of deliberative process, debates ongoing - debates in which lobbyists may have an interest, for example - and sometimes they are just personal. They could be to do with totally personal matters.

See this speech in context