Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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340. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for a full list of all documents, reports, strategies, and resources that have been “unpublished” by his Department over the past ten years (details supplied), including all such materials that have been “unpublished” by divisions, sections and units of his Department that became part of the Minister’s Department following a transfer of functions; and who “unpublished” the materials under a different Minister or Department. [33812/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the gov.ie website is the key source of information on government and public services. Initially launched in 2018 by my Department, it aims to provide a much better user experience by thematically presenting and simplifying information about our public services to ensure that they are not only easy to find, but also easy to follow and navigate. Gov.ie is a trusted platform for Government communications, handling approximately 75 million page views in 2024 and was the key communications tool and information resource for the public during covid-19 in particular. The gov.ie information service now also incorporates the latest news and updates from government that were previously published on the merrionstreet.ie website.

I wish to inform the Deputy that the Gov.ie website underwent a major system upgrade in April 2025 with 183,707 pages migrated, along with 9,737 images and 133,925 documents. In a mass movement of web content, it is inevitable that some broken links will occur and that these will take time to identify and resolve. An audit conducted post-migration revealed less than 1% of all pages were affected by broken links. Any broken links were replaced with placeholder text, “Item has been unpublished or removed”, rather than returning an error. At that time, my Department alerted the relevant government departments and public service bodies to the broken links on their pages and resolution of the issue is ongoing by these organisations.

My Department is committed to the open publication of government information and I can assure the Deputy there is no coordinated campaign underway to suppress information nor has any systematic removal of links or documents taken place. The issue here is a technical one which is being actively worked on to resolve. Pending full resolution of this issue, if the Deputy or indeed any member of the public requires access to a particular document that is affected by this issue, they are welcome to contact relevant Government Departments.