Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 30 Jan 2001

Vol. 529 No. 1

Written Answers. - Electronic Government.

Rory O'Hanlon

Question:

630 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Health and Children 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. [1565/01]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

I am fully aware that emerging technologies in the area of e-government and e-health have great potential to improve the maintenance of health and the delivery of health care in Ireland. I am supporting a number of projects in the health service which are already proving the usefulness of these new technologies.

I am currently working on the development of a new health strategy and I plan to launch this in mid 2001. It is fortuitous that I am developing the health strategy at a time when I can include plans to harness the full potential of e-government and e-health to best benefit the health and well-being of the population. In the meantime, my Department is working on the development of an interim e-health strategy. This interim strategy will concentrate on two issues: appropriate infrastructures to enable a range of future developments to take place and on making a range of health service related information available to the citizen.

Under the national development plan the total estimate for ICT for the health service is £20 million in 2001 and part of this will be used for initiatives in the e-government area. Also, I am currently in the process of finalising an allocation from the information society fund to be used specifically for developments in this area.

I have initiated a number of e-government initiatives within my own Department. In common with other Government Departments, my Department makes extensive use of e-mail facilities and we manage the processing of parliamentary questions electronically. Currently, four websites provide information for the Department itself, the Adoption Board, the Irish Social Services Inspectorate and the General Register Office. My Department is working on a new health promotion website and a number of other websites are at the planning stage. In addition, my Department's work programme includes the development of a full internal ICT strategy which will necessarily include an overall strategy for e-government.

My Department is also working jointly with the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs on the modernisation of the General Register Office (GRO). The modernised GRO will provide electronic registration facilities for vital events as well as electronic access to the registers of births, marriages and deaths. Separate funding for this project has been made available in the estimate for the office of the Minister for Social Community and Family Affairs.

Rory O'Hanlon

Question:

631 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of hits recorded on his Department's website in 2000. [1580/01]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

The Department of Health and Children maintains a number of web sites, the main site being www.doh.ie. Based on statistics supplied by our internet service provider which monitor activity on the site over a specific period – in this case during April 2000 – the average number of hits per day were 12,814, while the average number of user sessions were 851. These figures were consistent throughout the year.