Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I agree entirely with her on many of the issues she has raised. Since my appointment to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I have been working on this issue with my officials and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. It is the subject of a commitment given in the programme for Government adopted in May 2016. We have gone a good way down the road in the development of a single point entry portal between the unit in my Department, the open government unit and the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

I have a prepared answer, but the Deputy will be glad to know that much of the engagement she has suggested has been initiated. I have had engagement with the Acting Chairman and a number of other Deputies on other issues, but if it would be helpful, I would be delighted, if I can, to convene a meeting with the relevant officials and the Deputy at the earliest opportunity to bring her up to speed on the work we have done on the issue. With reference to much of what she referred to, we have gone a good way down the road in looking at it, particularly other models. One of the best examples available to Ireland for how the Government can best communicate with the citizenry through eGovernment, which forms another part of my responsibilities, is available in Estonia. While we are not suggesting we move entirely in that direction, it does give us food for thought.

The Deputy is absolutely right. It is the advocacy groups and those who claim to be representative of civil society that engage, but the vast majority, including the middle of the road person who gets up in the morning and sends his or her children to school or looks after somebody at home, do not have that level of engagement, unless they are involved in one of the organisations mentioned. It behoves the Government to try to use every mechanism available to us at national and local level to provide the citizenry with an opportunity to hear about what the Government is doing. That is the concept behind having a single entry point portal and making communications for the Government much more streamlined. That is part of the remit I have been given.

The public consultation portal is being developed by the open government unit in conjunction with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. There was to be a launch of the portal shortly, but I have requested that prior to the launch it be further developed to allow users to receive email notifications and share consultations on social media. I have asked the senior officials to meet to discuss that issue, but I have also asked them to examine an aspect about which I have a concern - the ad hocnature of the carrying out of public consultation. Week in, week out there are very large advertisements - sometimes smaller ones - in national and provincial newspapers about statutory requirements placed by every Department, local authority and so on on public consultation processes that have to be initiated. We could do it much more simply and cost effectively by virtue of State agencies, Departments and other entities being able to log on and make people aware of them. There is, however, the added difficulty of reaching people who do not have access to ICT services. Therefore, there will be a requirement to continue along the traditional route for certain elements.

My reply has been circulated and I can go through it later, but the Deputy raised specific issues and I wanted to assure her that we had taken them into consideration. To respond to the points she raised, I would be delighted to facilitate an opportunity for her to sit down with me and my officials to hear about what we have done so far and share her ideas in order that we can move forward in a manner that is in keeping with best practice.

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