Vol. 529 No. 1
397 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development his plans for the development and encouragement of e-government in 2001, and the amount of money included in his Department's Estimate for this purpose in 2001. [1563/01]
Following from my Department's IT strategy which was produced at the beginning of 2000, my Department has embarked on a four to five year programme, which has as an integral part the development and encouragement of e-government.
In order to ensure that e-government remains a focus of all future developments in my Department, I have set up an e-government working group. This group has responsibility for directing all e-government related developments and for ensuring that the Government's policy in this area is implemented. In addition, I have appointed a dedicated e-government manager to support their work.
The sum of 65 million is being made available to my Department, over the next four years, to implement the major system developments identified within the IT strategy. Each of these developments is supporting one or more specific elements of the e-government agenda.
As well as this funding, my Department has also applied to the Information Society fund for almost 1.227 million; this is for specific pilot projects in 2001. This sum also includes the amount of 444,000 for identified e-government projects in Teagasc. Furthermore, officials from my Department will be working to assist the other State agencies in publishing their own e-government strategy.
