Improve Quality and Quantity of Data on Open Data Portal (IE0054)

Brief Description of the Commitment

Open data is about making data held by public bodies available and easily accessible online for reuse and redistribution. This facilitates public visibility of government data, underpins democracy and reinforces our social contract with the public. Open Data and the transparency and scrutiny that comes with it is critical to all data management in the public sector. Once available, data can be used by a range of stakeholders for a range of purposes, including the improvement of public services, policy development, and to spark innovation across the public sector, civil society and the private sector. This commitment is: • To improve the quality and quantity of data published on the open data portal Data.gov.ie; and • To increase engagement with data publishers and users, and engagement between publishers and users.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? The public consultation and the civic society and Round Table engagement process carried out to support the development of NAP4 raised various issues with availability of data. This consultation highlighted ‘Data Access’ as a priority. Data held by public bodies is a valuable resource and should be managed carefully so that the public gain the benefits. When data is open and available to all it facilitates innovation, the delivery of public services, and individual benefits in accessing services easily. When data is not open this potential is restricted. In addition, if data is not open and transparent this can undermine trust in public services and government.

2. What are the causes of the problem? To make data open, public bodies must plan for data openness at the design stage of projects and programmes, capture data ethically, organise it logically, store it effectively and ensure it is accessible and searchable appropriately. Without this degree of planning, it is time consuming and costly to make data open. There is already a strong agenda and participation in improving open data across public bodies that can now be built upon. Barriers to making data available openly include lack of data skills, lack of technical skills and lack of a strategic approach to data.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? Ireland has recently published the second open data strategy National Open Data Strategy 2023-2027. During the period of the first strategy 2017-2022, Ireland made notable strides in the development of Open Data. The national open data portal was established and now hosts almost 18,000 datasets from almost 145 publishers. Supports have been put in place for public bodies, including access to training, support for portal development and the establishment of a network of open data liaison officers across public bodies. During this period Ireland ranked highest for Open Data Maturity in the EU for three years running. The new national open data strategy (2023-2027) seeks to build on this foundation. The goal is for Ireland to continue to drive excellence in the provision of Open Data to promote transparency and innovation in Ireland. It provides a framework for the actions that public bodies will take on Open Data over the next five years. Opportunities are laid out across three pillars for unlocking the power of Open Data in Ireland; Guiding goals and actions are provided for: • Data publishers • The development of the Open Data platform and • Data users. The Strategy lays out the direction to maintain the high level of Open Data use set during the COVID19 pandemic, and to enable the use of Open Data to improve public services and spark innovation across the public and private sectors to benefit the people of Ireland.

2. What solution are you proposing? A continued programme of support will assist public bodies to implement the new Open Data Strategy 2023- 2027. This will include: • Further development of the national Open Data portal to improve the quality and quantity of data published on the portal. • Data management training framework for public bodies. • Webinars and communication events on Open Data both within the public sector and with the wider public. • The Open Data Engagement Fund that seeks applications from organisations and individuals to run projects demonstrating the value of open data. • Providing technical support under the Green and Social Hours programme to support data management for small companies, civil society organisations (CSOs) and students. The public consultation held to develop NAP4 brought forward suggestions to improve open data including the need for dialogue between relevant stakeholders and quick fixes to issues in accessing data. In response to this a particular focus will be placed on: • Exploring mechanisms for further engaging community and voluntary bodies with the Open Data programme and supports; • Open Data webinars and communications directed including the public as users of Open Data; • Promoting engagement between data publishers and the public to assess the public’s priorities for data access; and • Networking and holding events around thematic data areas including climate and environmental data to bring data publishers and data users together to promote better communications between the two.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? • Public bodies taking a strategic approach to open data, with improved capacity and skills to do so. • Improved quality and quantity of data published on the open data portal Data.gov.ie. which can be used by all stakeholders to improve services for the public. • Contributing to the vision laid out in the Open Data Strategy to create easy access to high quality government data, promoting trust and stimulating innovation.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? Open data is about making data held by public bodies directly available and easily accessible online for reuse and redistribution. These commitments are fundamentally about increasing transparency of public bodies. The principle pursued is that public data is open by design and default and unless specified as personal or sensitive data, will be available to the public.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? The delivery of these commitments will make more data available for scrutiny by the general public increasing accountability.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? Public engagement centrally and by public bodies directly is an important component of this commitment. By encouraging data collection by the public in certain fields and harnessing the power of civic groups for data collection.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

Publish the Open Data Strategy and Hold the annual Open Data Conference | Open Data Strategy Conference recording, papers | Q4 2023

Further development of the Open Data portal Increased number of datasets available | Increased number of publishers Increased number of users Improved quality of datasets and presentation | Q4 2025

Fund and support the Engagement Fund | Open Data projects delivering and showcasing uses and value of open data with additional services provided to the public on the benefits of using open data | Q4 2024

Programme of engagement and communications | Webinars, presentations and communication events on Open Data both within the public sector and with the wider public | Q4 2025

Organise the distribution of support under the Green and Social Hours programme | Data management support for small companies, non-government organisations (NGOs), students | Q4 2025

Action Plan Review

Commitment 1. Open Data

Commitment1 could modestly improve the quality and quantity of data published on the open data portal and increase engagement between data publishers and users. Although the commitment text does not provide details on planned development of the open data portal, the Head of Open Data clarified that it aims to enhance the portal's compliance with EU legislation, developing new DCAT high-value dataset profiles to prioritize and freely distribute datasets of particular interest through bulk download and API access. [1] Compliance with DCAT standards would be a positive step as it encourages the government to expand public access to diverse datasets. Additionally, the initiative aims to enrich portal content, increase data publishers, and introduce FAQ resources to streamline the data publishing process. [2]

The commitment also includes milestones to support the Green and Social Hours programme—without details on scope—and the Engagement Fund, which has been ongoing since 2016, but without any concrete changes beyond encouraging Citizen Science projects. [3] Meanwhile, the aim of publishing the 2023–2027 Open Data Strategy was completed in November 2023 before the action plan was published. [4] The IRM recommends that the DPENDR outlines the support it aims to provide through the Green and Social Hours programme, specifying intended outcomes and identifying any specific Open Data events that will be hosted during the action plan period to enable better tracking. Adequate funding for the Engagement Fund in 2024 would help to stimulate public engagement with data, promote governance transparency, and empower communities through data-driven initiatives. This funding is crucial for supporting small-scale projects that use open data to enhance public participation in governance processes.