My Department has a number of major systems development programmes under way in the Garda, Land Registry, courts and prisons covering operational, administrative and financial systems.
Each individual project includes examination of business options including those for putting electronic transactions in place of existing paper or cash and thus enabling the development of e-commerce facilities which will expand the Department's ability to conduct its business electronically. The initial phases of most of these systems are due during 1999 and are concentrated on internal transactions. Later phases will involve electronic service delivery to members of the public and to companies. My Department is represented on a number of appropriate interdepartmental committees to ensure that its systems delivery in this regard will be in line with best practice as it develops.
As recently as 1 December each officer in the Department was given a unique e-mail address. The old e-mail address which appears on my Department's official stationery may still be used in the interim, my Department is in the process of amending all stationery accordingly. This allows them to be contacted directly by members of the public and the staff of other Departments through the use of the Internet. Officers may provide replies electronically through the same medium.
Many divisions within the Department have also been assigned e-mail addresses for example, citizenship, courts, law reform, equality, thereby allowing the general public direct contact. The specific addresses are listed on the Department's Internet website which can be found at the web address http://www. irlgov. ie/justice. All press releases and speeches and most departmental reports and commissioned research are published on the web site as are details of certain schemes of general public interest, for example, details on the rules for citizenship or guidelines on parental leave legislation.
While a significant proportion of the budget of the systems delivery programme is allocated for staff training, there are no external schemes or grants from my Department to assist in the use of information technology.
