Rise in use of banned sites linked to Dáil recess

Almost half of the known attempts to access banned websites on the Oireachtas server occurred when the Dáil and Seanad were not sitting.

A breakdown of the figures obtained by the Irish Examiner shows 17,078 of the 39,839 incidents recorded in the past four months took place when the Oireachtas was on its summer recess.

Under parliamentary rules, the Dáil and Seanad avails of an eight-week summer break, which this year lasted from July 18 until Sept 18.

However, despite the fact Leinster House effectively shuts down during this period, with no political debates or committees taking place, a significant number of the total cases can be linked to this timeframe.

Between May 17 and June 16, a total of 5,550 questionable website connections were noted on the Oireachtas server. This surged to a massive 17,211 between June 17 and July 16.

However, despite the fact that the Dáil and Seanad closed down for the subsequent eight weeks, the rate remained significantly higher than the May-to-June figure.

Records show the rates for both months during this quieter period — 9,480 between July 17 and Aug 16 and 7,598 between Aug 17 and Sept 16 — were in fact thousands of cases higher than the May 17 to June 16 timeframe.

Among the website categories to note the highest respective website log-on increases during the off-season Leinster House period was “provocative attire” (683 and 869 cases in first two months; 2,274 and 2,597 cases in final two months).

The “nudity” category also reported a noteworthy rise (198 and 62 to 161 and 726) as did “gambling” (zero and one to 11 and 10).