Departmental Reports

Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Questions (546)

Albert Dolan

Question:

546. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to confirm, in respect of his Department’s published quarterly reports of procurement-related payments or purchase orders over €20,000 (details supplied), where such reports are published in PDF format but originate from an Excel or similar spreadsheet file, that the underlying data was fully expanded and validated prior to conversion so that all columns including supplier names and descriptions are fully visible and readable in the published document; to clarify whether any quality assurance process is applied to ensure that data is not truncated or partially obscured in the PDF version; and where the source file exists in machine-readable format, whether his Department will make the original Excel or CSV file available alongside the PDF in the interest of transparency, accessibility and data re-use. [16581/26]

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Written answers

Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport

I wish to advise the Deputy that the details of procurement related purchase orders for goods and services exceeding €20,000 are published in PDF format on my Department’s website at:

www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/collections/purchase-orders/#2025

These reports are published on a quarterly basis, in arrears, in line with standard practice, and in compliance with both the Freedom of Information Act, 2014, and the Open Data Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1024). The data is clear and fully expanded and readable in the reports.

I also wish to advise the Deputy that the Data Officer in my Department has engaged with the Open Data Unit of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, with a view to creating a roadmap for publication of all suitable datasets in machine-readable formats, and in line with open data standards.