Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister’s response. Many people would agree that there have been major concerns regarding transparency and accountability. I do not need to rehash those concerns because I think we have debated regularly in this Chamber. It is welcome that there will be an open government round table multi-stakeholder forum and that the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will be attending. Equally, however, it is important that the collaborative effort consists of more than discussion and that firm action will be taken by the Government in this regard. It is important as well that the Government listens to what comes out of that process and that a real strategy emerges to improve accountability and transparency in the Government. I say that because we have a deficiency in that regard. We can see that with the Government’s review of the freedom of information legislation, and we need legislation to be introduced to strengthen all those aspects.

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