Oireachtas.ie won the Ireland eGovernment Data Innovation, Open Data and Insights Award at the ceremony held in UCD’s O'Reilly Hall on 24 September.
The Ireland eGovernment Awards celebrate and honour excellence, innovation and creativity in Ireland's Public Sector, and are the recognised as a benchmark for excellence in digital government services and standards.
The Oireachtas web and ICT teams won for their work on Inside Parliament | Open Data Insights which focused on transforming parliamentary open data into accessible, visual and interactive public information experiences that puts users in control of what they need to see.
Michelle Conville and David Cass from the Houses of the Oireachtas web team attended the awards ceremony and received the award from Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation, Jack Chambers.
Inside Parliament | Open Data Insights
The open data initiative from the Houses of the Oireachtas web and ICT teams is about making data held by public bodies available and easily accessible online for reuse and redistribution. With the Oireachtas already publishing extensive information on the work being done in Leinster House, Inside Parliament - Open Data Insights looks to transform what can be technical or complicated data into accessible, visual and interactive public information experiences that put users in control of what they want to see.
The interactive Dáil Chamber, an example of open data transformed into a visual and user-centred resource
Some of the key aims of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service outlined in its strategic plan include making our Parliament as transparent, accessible and innovative as possible through a digital-first focus.
Parliamentary information, including debates, votes, parliamentary questions and election outcomes, forms part of the public record of democratic representation, scrutiny and decision-making.
Detail of the Seanad Election Explorer, an example of Open Data Insights in action
This open data initiative, in combining publicly available data, visual storytelling and user-centred design, is an example of the Oireachtas looking to continuously strengthen transparency in our Parliament by enabling citizens, journalists, researchers and even those within the Oireachtas to examine, explain and build on the work being done around Leinster House.
Together, these projects demonstrate how parliamentary open data can be transformed into meaningful public insight by focusing on user experience, accessibility and using data in innovative ways.