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

The Taoiseach will recall that the report into the now disbanded marketing unit in the Department of the Taoiseach demonstrated that the decision to move to a single State website is far from being accepted best practice. In fact, the head of the marketing unit, who has now been transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, produced a report which looked at only three countries and produced no evidence to say the public found it easier to access official information. The United Nations ranking for eGovernment, which was cited repeatedly as a reason for the promotion of a single site, gave a high ranking to certain states due to completely different factors, access to broadband being the most important.

In all of the controversy last year, one thing that did come out of the meagre research competed by the unit was the advice of other countries not to implement anything before first checking with the public what they want and in what form they want it. This was, of course, a piece of advice which was completely ignored. Before the Taoiseach proceeds further with the single Government portal idea, will he tell us what research has been undertaken to gauge what people want and whether they currently find it difficult to access information? What is the status of the public opinion research which was contracted back in late 2017-----

See this speech in context