On Tuesday, the Oireachtas website changed how it operates, effectively shutting down KildareStreet.com. Simon McGarr outlines the issues here.
I send an email to the Oireachtas yesterday, containing several questions as follows:
- Can you supply me with a statement re operation of Oireachtas debates
website, and recent changes to the site which have apparently rendered
it unusable by the KildareStreet.com website? - Why were these changes implemented?
- Will information be published to allow resumption of KildareStreet.com
services? - In what way do the changes to the Debates website comply with government’s
egov strategy? - What was the cost of converting to a new format on the debates website?
- Was any consideration given to contacting KildareStreet.com and
informing of the changes, so that they might also adapt?
So far, this is the only reply I have received:
As you would probably have seen from Twitter conversations, the Oireachtas has invited Kildarestreet to meet to discuss the issues involved.
In reply, I pointed out (again) that I was asking as a journalist, that I doubted they would allow me to sit in on any meeting, that I would appreciate an answer to questions I had asked.
So far, silence.
I’ll keep you posted.
Not having been born yesterday, I was less than eager to enable them to shut down any press story with “we’ve organised a meeting”, on account of how there’s no evidence yet that they have any intention (or even ability) to undo their massive mistake. If not, that meeting would of course be completely pointless, and the scrabbling around to tick the PR box didn’t help their credibility much.
“We invited them” is what they’re trying instead. Make no mistake: the invite today was all about the optics, and nothing at all about the meeting.