On Friday the 14th of May 2010 Ciaran Cuffe TD and Minister held a pilot public video conference for 30 minutes. Minister Cuffee was able to address the concerns and issues of those logged in during the questions and answers session through live video from his office in Dun Laoghaire. Minister Cuffe discussed the subject of Smarter Travel in Ireland and what he is working on in his role as Minister for Transport.

Some of the questions included:

• Tara>> @ciarancuffe How far off do you see an integrated public transport card for Dublin or even nationally?
• Eamonn >> asks @ciarancuffe Do you think electric cars should be allowed to use bus lanes as a startup incentive?
• MP >> asks @ciarancuffe What do you think of the deal Dublin City Council did for “Dublin Bikes” with JC Decaux?
• John >> asks @ciarancuffe whats your opinion on 24hr bus lanes?
• John >> asks @ciarancuffe when will the taxi services be considered as fully part of the public transport?
• John >> asks @CiaranCuffe what about tax breaks for companies who set up their employees with a home office?
• Tara >> asks @ciarancuffe what work is being done to facilitate the integration of cycling with other modes of Transport?

“Wow, that was a full on video-conference, thanks for all the questions, we’ll do it again soon” (Ciaran Cuffe) http://twitter.com/CiaranCuffe/status/13971208940

After this public video conference  the Minister had to ironically “attend” an event “The Green Economy- A Business & Leadership Briefing Sustainable Development – Beyond Rhetoric”

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/special-events/the-green-economy-business-and-leadership-briefing

This was not Ciaran Cuffe’s first time using video conferencing as a tool to connect with an audience, in 2009 he met with Student’s in Tipperary Institue via video link too but this was specifically a private session and only as a way of educating third level student’s interested in learning about sustainablity in Ireland.

Ciaran Cuffe is a TD for Dun Laoghaire and is Minister for State with special reasonability for Sustainable Transport; Horticulture, Planning and Heritage which is spread over three departments Transport; Environment, Heritage and Local Government; and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. (since 23 Mar 2010)

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/aboutus/ministers/cvofministerofstatecuffe/