Vol. 453 No. 3
14 Mr. M. Ahern asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason the Framework Document was not made available to the public in libraries and post offices in view of the fact that it was made available in the North of Ireland; and the basis upon which this decision was made. [6836/95]
The suggestion that copies of a New Framework for Agreement were not made available through libraries and post offices is incorrect. The position is that 120,000 copies of the document were printed for distribution free to the public through public libraries, post offices, schools and citizen advice bureaus.
Of these, approximately 80,000 were distributed through post offices throughout the State, while 11,000 copies were distributed through public libraries. Copies were also distributed through schools and citizen advice bureaus. In addition, copies were made available to the public from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Copies of the Irish language version of the document have also been distributed widely. It is understood that 120,000 copies of the Framework Document have also been distributed in Northern Ireland.
To make A New Framework for Agreement available to the largest possible audience the Department of Foreign Affairs, in co-operation with Dublin City University, also arranged to distribute the document via the World Wide Web. This computer based information technology allows the text to be read via the Internet from computers located anywhere in the world.
Finally, in conjunction with the National Council for the Blind, arrangements were made to provide copies of the document in braille to a number of centres around the country.
