[Okfn-irl] REMINDER & DOCUMENTS: CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM MEETING TONIGHT 5.30 TASC's OFFICES

[Andrew Jackson]

John,

Your criticism is misplaced.  We explicitly raised the narrowness of the
themes proposed by DPER.  I specifically highlighted that open data (one of
DPER's proposed themes) is different from FOI/access to info (and active
dissemination) and argued that the themes should be broadened to allow for
more CS proposals to be included.  I stated that narrow themes predetermine
the range of CS proposals that can fall under those themes.  I also noted
that CS proposals under transparency and accountability seemed to be
particularly poorly represented in DPER's first draft.  Note that this
applies more generally than simply to FOI fees; other very important CS
proposals have similarly not been taken on board - e.g. rules on legal
costs and access to justice in public interest cases.

DPER had been resisting providing feedback on all of the 62 CS proposals,
having instead provided a narrative cherry-picking those on which to
comment.  I noted that best practice requires a full response and cited the
following recent DECLG consultation:
http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/AarhusConvention/PublicConsultations/(two
phases of public consultation and decision tables responding to
consultees' points).  DPER has now committed to creating a similar decision
table.  We should therefore soon be in a position to see precisely what
DPER has to say about the CS action plan proposals.  We will then ALL (and
not just those of us who have volunteered to attend weekly meetings with
DPER) be in a much better position to: (a) know where we stand; and (b)
fight the case for CS proposals, including abolishing FOI fees.

You are far from out on your own in the wilderness pressing the case for
FOI and AIE.

Andrew


On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 6:57 PM, John Handelaar <johnhandelaar at gmail.com>wrote:

> Annoyed, if *utterly* unsurprised, that
>
> a)  DPER has completely removed all references to FOI fees following
> the public consultation and
> b)  None of you appear to have queried it on the record.
>
> On 18 February 2014 14:21, Nuala Haughey <nhaughey at tasc.ie> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> >
> >
> > With apologies in advance for any cross-postings, I'd like to remind you
> of
> > this week's meeting of the OGP civil society forum, tonight in TASC's
> > offices on 14-15 Parliament Street, Dublin 2 at 17.30.  The CS Forum will
> > meet every Tuesday evening at the same time, for the time being. We hope
> > everyone who can will be there for these important discussions.
> >
> >
> >
> > The purpose of tonight's meeting is to discuss progress to date on the
> work
> > towards Ireland's first OGP Action Plan.
> >
> >
> >
> > I attach DPER's first draft National Action Plan outline which was
> discussed
> > at the second meeting of the DPER/CS Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting
> last
> > Thursday, 13th February.
> >
> >
> >
> > Below are the notes and Action Points of the JWG meeting of 13th
> February.
> > Denis has also kindly uploaded these documents to this google drive:
> >
> https://drive.google.com/a/online.ie/?usp=gmail#folders/0B5UpNv1ZWNoDQmZMTjBFVThob2c
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > OGP Joint Working Group
> >
> > Summary Meeting Notes
> >
> > 13/2/14
> >
> > Civil Society Members present: Andrew Jackson, Denis Parfenov, Nuala
> > Haughey, Antoin Ó Lachtnain, Anne Colgan.
> >
> > Civil Service Members Present: William Beausang (PER), Evelyn O'Connor
> > (PER), Claire Martinez (PER), Conor McCann (PER), Donal Enright
> > (D/Environment, Community & Local Government).
> >
> > The draft Work Plan: DPER circulated a draft Work Plan with a schedule of
> > tasks/meetings aimed at having a good draft plan for April 3rd. The plan
> > factors in some wider consultation on the draft, but leaves open the
> option
> > of public consultation following the launch. The CS had also done work on
> > possible scheduling of tasks. Both plans are broadly similar, with some
> > differences in emphasis as to where most time investment will be needed.
> The
> > two schedules will be merged by DPER, and serve as a guide/check as we go
> > rather than a rigid timetable.
> >
> > Conference planning: The intended attendance will be 300 people. The key
> > planning matters include themes, topics, speakers from Europe and
> elsewhere,
> > Chairs, rapporteurs, plenaries and break-out sessions, logistics and
> event
> > management. The planning timeframe is tight. DPER requested 2/3
> volunteers
> > from CS to join the planning team. Denis offered to be involved. CS will
> > source another person/s for the team as quickly as possible. CS
> volunteers
> > will also be sought to assist at the conference.
> >
> > Themes: CS gave feedback on the three themes put forward by DPER (link) -
> > Open Data, Political Reform, Improving Public Services and strengthening
> > citizen participation. The main CS view was that the themes should link
> more
> > explicitly to the OGP agenda. There was a lengthy discussion about the
> link
> > between improved customer service and citizen engagement. The CS view
> > favoured separating these and keeping the focus on citizen engagement
> with a
> > core purpose of strengthening democratic participation. The CS ideas
> about
> > themes focused on accountability/ transparency, strengthening democracy
> and
> > areas such as innovation and growth; political reform and Open data
> would be
> > key enablers for these. DPER referred to the need for a plan that will
> be an
> > integrated whole. They will recast the themes in advance of next CS Forum
> > meeting (Tuesday 18th), and provide a draft narrative that aims to set a
> > context.
> >
> > DPER Document on CS Submission: CS gave feedback on the DPER document
> > (link). The DPER document was very helpful in providing background and
> > context to the CS Propositions. One CS concern was that the DPER document
> > does not explicitly state where the scope for change lies, though there
> are
> > some pointers, and does not appear to leave scope for new initiatives to
> > emerge. CS made a case for explicit feedback on each proposal; while DPER
> > felt that this might risk getting the process bogged down in detail and
> > reducing the room for convergence, they will undertake to do that since
> it
> > will help CS in its task of finalising its proposals.
> >
> > Action Plan template: CS proposed that there would be joint/separate
> > Government/CS introduction rather than a merged introduction and that CS
> 62
> > proposed would be 'memorialised' in some way; DPER will prepare a first
> > working draft of the Introduction, but this will be open to revision and
> > this will be finalised when the Action plan is agreed.
> >
> >  Administrative support: The governance arrangements for the
> administrative
> > support were reviewed, and CS gave an update on the progress in hiring
> the
> > administrator (interviews 13/2/14).  DPER requested that the OGP website
> > would be moderated, as previously, to have oversight of content. It was
> > agreed that the OGP Logo will be retained exclusively for the OGP
> website.
> >
> > Next meeting: Thursday February 20th at 11.30am, DPER offices.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > OGP Joint Working Group Meeting - 11.30am 13/02/14
> >
> > Action Points
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Location: TASC, Castleriver House, 14-15 Parliament Street, Dublin 2
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Civil Society Members present: Anne Colgan, Andrew Jackson, Denis
> Parfenov,
> > Nuala Haughey, Antoin Ó Lachtnain
> >
> >
> >
> > Civil Service Members Present: William Beausang (PER), Evelyn O'Connor
> > (PER), Claire Martinez (PER), Conor McCann (PER), Donal Enright
> > (D/Environment, Community & Local Government).
> >
> >
> >
> > A number of action points emerged from this meeting, the second
> gathering of
> > the OGP Joint Working group, continuing the collaborative process of
> > drafting Ireland's first OGP National Action plan.
> >
> >
> >
> > ·         D/PER representatives agreed to begin work on a point by point
> > tabular response to the 62 proposals put forward in the Civil Society
> > report. This tabular response will be similar in style to those issued
> > previously by D/ECLG. It will briefly outline why particular proposals
> > are/are not being considered as feasible for inclusion in the action
> plan or
> > where there is convergence. This will give all those who contributed to
> the
> > public meetings in 2013 an understanding of the reasons why their input
> > is/is not proposed for inclusion in the action plan.
> >
> > ·         D/PER will further develop the proposed headings in the draft
> > action plan outline to broaden them into more specific thematic areas
> with a
> > high level vision narrative for the plan around the themes.
> >
> > ·         D/PER will also start drafting the Introduction to the plan
> > indicating inter alia the reasoning behind Irish involvement in the OGP
> and
> > the importance of the process. They will also start drafting a
> description
> > of Open Government efforts to date.
> >
> > ·         The incoming administrative support member, who is expected to
> > begin work shortly, will consolidate the two draft work plans - put
> forward
> > by D/PER and civil society representatives respectively - into a single
> work
> > plan.
> >
> > ·         Regarding the administrative support, it was agreed that the
> > budgeting would be flexible enough to allow for the arrangement of
> meetings
> > etc. It was also agreed that the OGP Ireland logo would be taken down
> from
> > twitter accounts not directly associated with the OGP Ireland website, in
> > order to avoid confusion.
> >
> > ·         The next meeting of the Joint Working Group will take place on
> > Thursday February 20 at 11:30am in 14 - 16 Merrion Street.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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