Produced since the First Dáil, the Official Report of the Houses of the Oireachtas occupies a unique potential research area for the digital humanities. It is all at once historical artefact and current, constant and evolving discussion, influencing and being influenced by factors outside parliament. Sue Thomas references Manguel’s comment that “the act of reading in time requires a corresponding act of reading in place” (Thomas, 2014) and it follows that if the qualities of a reading are altered by whether one sits at a desk or in a comfortable armchair, they are similarly affected by social, political and economic tensions arising from the past, present and future.

The Official Report is “substantially but not strictly verbatim because it is accepted that the words spoken by Members and witnesses must be lightly edited for a readership rather than a listenership” (Oireachtas, 2020). Historically, debate was reported by reporters skilled in shorthand and parliamentary transcribers but today the debate is recorded digitally before transcription and the proceedings of the Oireachtas are available across a variety of media and digital platforms. Although the Official Report refers to a “bound volume” that is produced, the debate is overwhelmingly consumed in digital format on the web and made available to others as a form of open data. Nevertheless, the PDF documents produced now are at first glance hard to distinguish from their ancestors, but can the debates, and the reading of those debates, sit in the same context when digital and physical content are read in manifestly different ways (Hayles, 2010)?

A parliamentary debate may be published now without a sheet of paper being marked and yet to a casual observer, the text looks similar and the assumption is that the debate is captured in the same way it might have been 100 years ago. It cannot be, in truth, as the debate is influenced in different ways. Does this Official Report still retain its authenticity and authority when we are reimagining our acts of reading and understanding political debates?