Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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19. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will report on the implementation of Ireland's first Open Government Partnership national action plan across the three main areas of promoting open data and transparency, building citizen participation and strengthening governance and accountability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33327/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As the Deputy is aware, Ireland became a full member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in July 2014 following the publication of its first National Action Plan 2014-2016.  There are 26 commitments in the Plan which span the following three core areas:

1.Open Data and Transparency

2.Fostering citizen participation/more active citizenship

3.Strengthening governance and accountability

Membership of the OGP requires  governments to submit annual Self-Assessment Reports assessing performance in meeting the commitments in the OGP National Action Plans.  

I recently published for consultation, prior to finalisation and submission to the OGP Support Unit internationally,  Ireland's first self-assessment report.

I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the first year review shows that excellent progress has been made in implementing the Plan across each of the main areas with 9 actions already fully completed, 13 substantially completed and only 4 with limited progress.  I am particularly pleased that the areas under my own remit on Open Data, legislative reforms and a number of key actions around citizen engagement are very substantially progressed. 

In relation to Open Data completed actions include establishment of a Technical Framework meeting best practice standards and development of an Open Data portal.  The establishment of an Open Data Governance Board is well advanced. 

In relation to citizen participation, completed actions include development of new public consultation guidelines in line with best practice internationally, early engagement in the legislative process, Public Participation Networks have been established at local government level, the first Strategy on children and young people's participation in decision-making has been developed and other actions are well advanced.

In relation to strengthening governance and accountability, a number of legislative reforms have been introduced including the Freedom  of Information Act 2014, the Protected Disclosures Act 2014, and the Lobbying Regulation 2015.

I am confident that the various actions will achieve greater transparency and accountability, help improve public services, and enable valuable contributions to decision-making, all of which are extremely important to the functioning of government institutions and ultimately economic growth and social progress.