Oireachtas cuts website costs

The Oireachtas has saved as much as €500,000 from changes on its website that forced the closure of a popular website dedicated to Dáil and Seanad debates.

An Oireachtas spokeswoman has said that the long-term savings from the upgrade of its system were significant and had also led to improvements in the operation of the 'debates' section of its own website, allowing people access to everything that is said in the Dáil and Seanad.

However, an unintended consequence of the changes was to halt the operation of the popular kildarestreet.com. The new system in use by the Oireachtas provides its data in a web-based format, and data is no longer available in raw structured from, through XML files.

Kildarestreet.com was popular with many politicians, researchers, journalists and political junkies because of its attractive layout, and a fast advanced search facility that excluded non-relevant documents.

But the three-year old site was unable to process the web-based data and since the Dail returned on Tuesday of last week has not been in a position where it is able to upload Oireachtas debates onto its website.

The site's founder John Handelaar held a meeting with staff from the Oireachtas and its debate office last Friday with a view to finding a resolution.

It is believed that the Oireachtas Commission is keen to find a resolution that will allow Kildarestreet.com resume its work.

At the moment, an interim arrangement is in place where XML files are being processed manually to facilitate the site. However, the lead-in period is three to four days, as opposed to up to 24 hours under the old system.

Mr Handelaar said yesterday that clearly there is something in the production chain that is capable of "spitting out XML files" – something which would accommodate his website.

"The people [from the Oireactas] I met are genuinely committed to doing what they can to help," he said.

The Oireachtas spokeswoman said that it was working with kildarestreet.com to find a resolution acceptable to them.

"In the next day or two, proposals will be put," she said.

The site is still carrying the message that it has been forced to cease publication for the time being.