Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Taoiseach will be aware, documents released under freedom of information show that the procurement of a new website for the Department of the Taoiseach and a new overall web portal was rushed through last year. This happened before a single piece of research had been undertaken on what the users of the sites might want. The Taoiseach will also be aware that the one uniform finding from the small piece of work carried out by the strategic communications unit on international practice stated that all initiatives should emerge from a clear public demand and not from politicians or officials. Is it acceptable practice to commission major work such as this in advance of developing specifications informed by users?

The Taoiseach committed to the research being published. When will this happen? It is the near uniform experience of such projects that a failure to start with consultation and research leads to wasted effort and money.

It is more than six months since the Taoiseach told the Dáil that parties would be consulted in advance of the public opinion commissioned by the strategic communications unit. Will he explain why this extraordinary delay has occurred? I am informed that it is viewed as bad practice to undertake major opinion research during holiday periods. When will the research that the House has been discussing for a long time be carried out? There was meant to be consultation with all of us but for some reason that has not happened in six months.

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