Independent site Kildarestreet.com closes abruptly

A website which gave easy access to Dáil and Seanad debates closed abruptly after the Oireachtas changed its data systems this…

A website which gave easy access to Dáil and Seanad debates closed abruptly after the Oireachtas changed its data systems this week.

Kildarestreet.comhad become popular with many politicians, researchers, journalists and others because of the quality of its search facility and an intuitive arrangement of parliamentary debates.

It had almost 200,000 unique visitors in the past 12 months, generating almost a million page impressions.

This week the Oireachtas changed its data delivery system to a web-based format, which Kildarestreet.comcould not use for uploading material onto its website. A spokeswoman for the Oireachtas rejected any suggestion it was trying to exclude other sites.