Kildarestreet,com - Transcripts of Oireachtas Debates

**PaddyJoe** · 19-09-2012, 04:35 PM

Mark Mulqueen used to be the press officer for Clerk of the Dáil, Kieran Coughlan. The Irish MOS wasn't too happy with either of them over the Ned O'Keefe bogus expenses story:

In the 18 months since the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed the bogus claims of Ned O’Keeffe, the Clerk of the Dáil and his staff have repeatedly insisted that there were no grounds for an Oireachtas investigation.
Despite clear evidence of irregularities in the invoices, Kieran Coughlan, his press officer, Mark Mulqueen, and lawyers acting for the Oireachtas spent a year denying that there was any possibility that Mr O’Keeffe could have done anything wrong.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz26vzDcbO9
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**C. Flower** · 19-09-2012, 07:06 PM

Very casual about these changes.

It was very pleasing to see interest in watch Dail proceedings live grow over the last year or two.

A bit of an information blast last week would have been a good idea.

**PaddyJoe** · 19-09-2012, 11:26 PM

Kildarestreet.com statement September 19th 2012:

KildareStreet.com is a non-partisan website which makes it not only easy for people to keep tabs on their elected representatives in the Houses of the Oireachtas, but actually possible for them to do this - quickly, clearly, and electronically - for the first time ever in the history of the Republic. KildareStreet provides a readable copy of the parliamentary record, allows voters to finally search for and find information within it, get RSS feeds for TDs and Senators and set up email or RSS alerts for people or search terms. It also allows active commenting by visitors on what was said.

On September 18th, 2012, with no warning or published statement of intent, a significant change to the Houses of Oireachtas website housing the public record of Dail and Sinead debates was made, effectively killing KildareStreet.com for the foreseeable future.

The public data that was previously published at debates.oireachtas.ie has been mothballed, and all new publication there has ceased. Without the publication of these XML-formatted transcripts from the Oireachtas and the Seanad, KildareStreet.com, Ireland’s largest open data project to date, has been summarily terminated by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

http://www.kildarestreet.com/statement2012/

**PaddyJoe** · 20-09-2012, 11:39 AM

From http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/blog/
Why it matters that the Oireachtas just killed KildareStreet.com

If you have ever tried to search for anything on the Houses of the Oireachtas website, you can understand why I can confidently say it is the worst thing in the Universe. It is probably worse than that but language must fail beyond a certain level of awfulness.

The search doesn’t work and never did. You can’t link to any particular part of a debate. You can’t look for contributions by a particular Oireachtas member. Basically, you can’t do anything you could possibly imagine you might actually want to use a record of the Oireachtas debates for.

KildareStreet.com works. It does everything the Oireachtas website should always have done. It even does extra things- like let you sign up for email alerts if a particular phrase is mentioned.

And on the 17th September, the Houses of the Oireachtas just pulled the plug on the whole glorious thing. They did it without warning (though they were fully aware of KildareStreet.com’s existence and utility) and they did it would caring about the consequences for KildareStreet.com’s over half-a-million users. In doing so, they demonstrated that our State is either guided by petty minded malice or is driven by block-headed ignorance.

**Captain Con O'Sullivan** · 20-09-2012, 12:09 PM

I found Kildare Street and its search facility invaluable both on the 'dynastic politics' threads and when trawling through the Quango Hammer threads searching for the QueenQuango (the one that satisfied me that the corruption in Ireland was arranged and spun out of that particular nest by McCreavy).

I'd say the Oireachtas have copped on that having the ability to search back through Dail appointments and transcripts was what was helping bloggers to put two and two together and link to actual records.

Looks like they've finally copped that making transcripts available and searchable is against their own interests.

Wonder if they've managed to disappear the official state gazette as well 'Oifig'?

**fluffybiscuits** · 20-09-2012, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by Captain Con O'Sullivan

I found Kildare Street and its search facility invaluable both on the 'dynastic politics' threads and when trawling through the Quango Hammer threads searching for the QueenQuango (the one that satisfied me that the corruption in Ireland was arranged and spun out of that particular nest by McCreavy).

I'd say the Oireachtas have copped on that having the ability to search back through Dail appointments and transcripts was what was helping bloggers to put two and two together and link to actual records.

Looks like they've finally copped that making transcripts available and searchable is against their own interests.

Wonder if they've managed to disappear the official state gazette as well 'Oifig'?

Oifig Iriguil?

I saw a hard copy a few weeks back....

**Dr. FIVE** · 20-09-2012, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by PaddyJoe

Mark Mulqueen used to be the press officer for Clerk of the Dáil, Kieran Coughlan.

Notice there is a Frankie Mulqueen having crack at Kildarestreet on twitter too. YFG National Director of Policy whatever the feck that is.

Meeting between all concerned at LH tomorrow