Speech of Minister of State Tom Kitt TD at Launch of eConsultation Website 6th September 2006 I am very pleased to be here today to be associated with the launch of the Houses of the Oireachtas pilot eConsultation website. In thanking Dick for his kind remarks, I should also give credit to my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, and his officials who responded so positively to my request that their proposals for broadcasting legislation would be the subject of this consultation exercise. It is, perhaps, particularly fitting and appropriate that this is so given the communications brief of the Minister. The enthusiastic support of my other colleagues in Government also deserves mention. Today’s launch is indeed a significant event. It represents the first step in an ambitious attempt to revolutionise the manner in which Parliament, Government and the citizen interact - · Until now, the focus has largely been on making information available to the public, largely by traditional means but increasingly by use of modern information and telecommunications technologies or ICTs. · The focus of this exercise is radically different: the aim is to test the readiness of Parliament, Government and the public to use new technologies to facilitate and underpin efficient, genuine and transparent dialogue between them. This has been made possible by significant past investment and effort on the part of both Government and Parliament in making information available to the citizen. The present exercise clearly builds on this as you will see when the website is demonstrated shortly · it draws on parliamentary debates and other documents already published to the web by the Oireachtas; · it links to Acts of the Oireachtas published to the web by both the Office of the Attorney General and the Oireachtas; · it presents Minister Dempsey’s proposals for broadcasting legislation in a structured and accessible way, the emphasis being on ease of navigation. You will also see that considerable effort has been made to ensure that the website is user-friendly. Contributors will be able to save, return to and re-edit draft observations before finally “sending them in”; and to view their own observations at all times. Although it is entirely a matter for the Joint Committee to decide, the approach taken will also allow virtually instant publication to the web of all observations received, arranged both by contributor and by subjects addressed. At a later point, when Deputy O’Flynn’s Committee comes to consider the result of the initial consultation, its deliberations will be webcast with the technology already in use by the Oireachtas to webcast Dáil and Seanad proceedings, thereby bringing the proceedings of the Joint Committee ‘live’ to the public. An on-line discussion fora, which is based on the same technology used for observations, will be launched at the same time as the webcasting of the Committee’s deliberations; this will allow the public have an opportunity to comment on and discuss the Committee’s deliberations as they arise. It is important to ensure that this is an inclusive campaign where all have an equal opportunity to participate. I note the extensive advertising campaign being undertaken by the Joint Committee. I am conscious that not all citizens have access to the internet in their homes. For those you have not, the traditional methods of making submissions are open to them but I would like to remind them also that their local library can offer them the Internet facility. Finally, I am confident that the public will engage with this pilot project. It’s their opportunity to have their say on the future of broadcasting in Ireland .