Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Open government is a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth. Ireland is fully committed to upholding the Open Government Partnership principles of open and transparent government. Significant progress has been made in progressing the programme for Government commitment to "Continue and reinvigorate participation by the public sector in Open Government Partnership". Milestones achieved to date, with civil society, include: the provision of open government in Ireland webpages on gov.ie; the co-creation of terms of reference for the open government round table multi-stakeholder forum; a public call for expressions of interest to join the open government round table multi-stakeholder forum; a public call for submissions for the next and future open government national action plans; and the nomination of public sector round table members from relevant Departments. Ireland is also in the running for an international Open Government Partnership impact award for the Irish Citizens’ Assembly and our deliberative democracy journey.

The first meeting of the open government round table, to be opened by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will take place online on 29 November 2021. There are no predetermined issues or commitments to be addressed at this stage of the process. It is a cornerstone of the process that the round-table members will collaborate on the issues to develop the next open government national action plan commitments through this multi-stakeholder process, with the active engagement of citizens and civil society.

The round-table members will have the opportunity to consider the breadth of submissions received from the public call; updates on relevant programme for Government commitments and other activity, for example, the transposition of the EU whistleblowing directive; ethics legislation; the review of the Freedom of Information Act; and open data, etc. The national action plan, which emerges for the round table's deliberations, will focus on the Open Government Partnership values of transparency; civic participation; public accountability; and technology and innovation enablers.

See this speech in context