Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to do that. If we look at the existing scheme, the fact that the requests have doubled is a good sign that people are engaging with the broader FOI system. One thing that also needs to be strengthened across public bodies is the work we are doing with the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, on data and digitalisation. A great deal of public information can be published properly and proactively that should be in the public domain without people having to go through an FOI process. That line of work needs to be strengthened across State agencies and Departments to ensure people can access information and do their own independent data analysis of much of the work to strengthen public policy and evidenced-based decision-making. That would help. When I was a Minister of State in the Department of Transport, the fragmentation of certain information somewhat inhibited transport research in certain areas where it was necessary to go through a protracted process to extract the information.

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