E-Government website?

SimpleSam06

I had an idea there, reading the many threads about Bertie's "suicide comments", and the general disaffection of a lot of posters, and I wanted to run it by the experts in the politics forum. I'm no expert myself, but it seems to me we could do with a lot more transparency in government in this country.

Sooo, what I thought was, why not have a single website where all debates, decisions, and public meeting type affairs from local to national government level get displayed, and then allow comments on these events?

For example, you would have two main sections in it, national and local government, a bit like boards with its regions. Every time there was a meeting or decision or whatever, the minutes get posted up as a new link/story, for interested parties to read.

You could also have a record sheet linked from the mention of each politician's or civil servant's name, click on it and their bio pops up, with links to discussions where they were mentioned before. In terms of further feedback, you could enable a poll after a few days of discussion, to allow people to vote good/bad/ugly etc.

Can anyone else see a benefit to this idea? Does such a site already exist? And is there any way to requisition up to date information from the government, which should be public knowledge? And finally, assuming resistance from local councils, can they be forced to hand over this information in a timely fashion?

Oirthir

All Dáil & Seanad debates are online at www.oireachtas.ie . I'd imagine the relevant CoCo websites have the minutes as well.

All laws passed by the Oireachtas are at www.irishstatutebook.ie .

And finally, Citizens info has a website. Used to be at www.oasis.ie , but not sure where it is now.

I'd agree that it would make sense to just have them all at one portal page instead of all over the place.

SimpleSam06

Oirthir wrote:

I'd agree that it would make sense to just have them all at one portal page instead of all over the place.

Not just that, but allow a feedback mechanism like a discussion board and polls as well, and an easy link to who's who in the debates. Thats the important difference - I feel a lot of people are just frustrated because they think they have no voice.

Also a link to budgetary allocations for each government body should be readily available too.

Victor

Oirthir wrote:

All laws passed by the Oireachtas are at www.irishstatutebook.ie

To be pedantic that is two years out of date.

Oirthir wrote:

And finally, Citizens info has a website. Used to be at www.oasis.ie , but not sure where it is now.

www.oasis.gov.ie which became http://www.citizensinformation.ie

jjbrien

I thought the whole lot can be accessed off www.gov.ie

SimpleSam06

I think a lot of people are missing the point here. I'm not just talking about an information resource, although that is needed as well (I mean who, off the top of your head, is in charge of the census in Waterford? Who is responsible for keeping the minutes of the Cavan Co. Council?)

I'm talking about returning transparency to government, and giving people a voice where they have very little. Top down hierarchical structures are all very well in the girl scouts, but in government a little more accountability is required, I feel.