Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Higgins is correct that the “or” does make it binary, so I would urge a review of that and to allow the possibility of "or both".

I have full confidence in the views of the executive and the members in local authorities around the country, and that they would not be so minded as to hide behind the word and say that if they had it online, they could not have a public meeting. I do not believe that is likely to happen. As many of us are former county councillors and elected members ourselves, we appreciate that is not likely to ever happen. However, the Senator’s point is correct and I agree with that.

The only place I have ever come across a word limit is within a planning permission, and I have experienced it in planning permission submissions with just one local authority. It does not preclude sending information in as an attachment by email, and it is only where they are provided with a box that a person has to cut and paste into. That would suggest it is a technology issue rather than anything else. We have to be mindful of the implementation of the submission process to ensure there is not something in the technology to preclude that. While I can see where the Senator is coming from, I am not sure it is necessary in this instance because it is only in that context of a cut and paste box, whereas a document can be attached in other formats and it is unlimited.