Hubie Pilkington
Staff Writer
On October 11th a Trinity student launched an innovative new website aimed at creating a direct line between voters and TDs. Sarah O’Neill, a Philosophy and Politics senior sophister presented her website DailWatch.ie which intends to provide a neutral platform through which citizens can communicate with their representatives in the Dáil.
The launch, which took place in the National Library, Kildare street, was attended by some 40 people. A panel of guest speakers included dignitaries such as Harry McGee, political correspondent for the Irish Times, Rúairí McKiernan, of the Council of State and founder of SpunOut.ie, and Dr Jane Suiter of the Board of Trustees.
The website enables anyone to ask any member of Dáil Eireann a question as well as accessing each TD’s voting behaviour and previous speeches. Its origins and establishment are in partnership with its’ German equivalent, ParliamentWatch, which boasts 300,000 unique users a month across Germany. DailWatch is predominantly funded by the British organisation The Rowntree Trust as well as regular one-off donations.
Professor David Farrell, Head of Politics and International Relations in UCD, stated that ‘Dailwatch.ie will substantially contribute to the accessibility and transparency of the political system’.
Meanwhile, Ms O’Neill commented at the launch about the Irish people’s sense of disillusion and disenfranchisement stemming from ‘a lack of clarity and openness’ within the systems of government. She went on to say that she is confident that ‘Dailwatch.ie will create a constructive, positive and enduring relationship between voters and politicians’ describing it as a ‘necessary and timely development in Ireland’s new political narrative’.
Ms O’Neill gained the opportunity to found the website on the back of an internship with Ashoka Ireland and attended the Change Nation gathering. The gathering, where fifty entrepreneurs came together to form an innovation that identifies global solutions and adapts them to the Irish context, enabled her to learn of ParliamentWatch and soon she was approached to bring about the Irish equivalent.
