Dáil opens to online queries: Website gives access to politicians

A WEBSITE aiming to boost political transparency and communication was launched yesterday in Dublin.

The website, Dailwatch.ie, allows constituents to publicly put questions to TDs, which they can reply to using their Oireachtas email addresses. The answers will also be made public and will not be removed.

Website users will be able to browse questions and answers by issue, allowing them to see whether a topic they are concerned about has already been addressed.

The platform was created to be mutually beneficial for both constituent and TD said founder of Dailwatch Sarah O’Neill.

“Dailwatch is very much designed to be a collaborative project. People feel disillusioned and disenfranchised with the systems of government and a lot of this discontentment stems from a lack of clarity and openness,” she said.

“This platform which is being launched today is about empowerment and active citizenship, not dirty tricks or political gaffes. We want to ensure that politicians are accountable and have a direct communicative link with the electorate to ensure the individuals that command our highest offices act with integrity, honesty and full transparency.”

The site is based on a similar German website, Parliamentwatch.com, which has a 90 per cent participation rate among all politicians in Germany. Ms O'Neill has had experience with Parliamentwatch.comin the past and despite still studying for her undergraduate degree from Trinity College, she wanted to help set up an Irish version.

“I was not going to miss an opportunity to bring this to Ireland,” she said.

“It is a necessary and timely development in Ireland’s new political narrative.”

The website may be able to bring positive work done in the Oireachtas to light, said chairman of the justice, defence and equality committee David Stanton.

“This website will be very useful. There is a negative narrative about politicians and TDs and I personally find it very difficult,” he said.