Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 4 responds to the concerns raised by Senator Quinn. We maintained that electronic publication was not prohibited under the legislation as drafted. To avoid any doubt we extended the definition of "publication" to include the electronic mode of publication.

Compellability is a different issue. Legislation cannot be prescriptive in that sense as it could lead to circumstances that might cause huge difficulties, not only for this agency, but for all agencies. Given that its whole ethos is to move parameters in IT, the digital hub will use the most up-to-date means of getting the message out.