Rory O'Hanlon
Question:146 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Taoiseach 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. [1557/01]
Written Answers. - Electronic Government.
The Government action plan, Implementing the Information Society in Ireland, is the blueprint for the development and encouragement of e-government. A copy of the action plan, together with progress reports on its implementation, can be obtained at my Department's website at www.irlgov.ie/taoiseach/eIreland/intro. htm.
Subsequent to its publication, the e-Europe action plan has been published, information society commitments have been given in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, and the public services broker model has been launched. Consequently, my Department is examining the possibility of producing a composite action plan taking account of developments to date and the Government's activity in relation to e-government, including the strategies for the electronic delivery of services being developed by each Department.
In the case of my Department, the following major initiatives are under way to promote the information society and the development of e-government: the e-Cabinet project – the e-Cabinet project was approved by Government in April 2000 and PricewaterhouseCoopers has been retained as consultant for phase 1 of the project to develop recommendations on the shape of an e-Cabinet model; engagement of an external facilitator to assist the cross-departmental development of strategies for the electronic delivery of information and services – Departments were mandated to produce electronic delivery strategies by December 2000 and following on from this, further work will be undertaken, using an external facilitator, with a view to developing an e-delivery strategy for the public service in the context of the public service broker; further development of the social partners extranet – this extranet, the first such public service one to include other than public servants, is part of the monitoring and implementation process of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, and proposed enhancements in 2001 include some interactive capabilities, a statistical database and access to an archive of documents of interest to social partners; research will be undertaken in the area of e-service delivery methods and user interaction with electronically enabled agencies; resourcing of the information society policy unit in my Department to further develop policies for e-government and the information society generally.
In excess of £50 million is being provided this year to fund information society initiatives. An allocation for initiatives being sponsored by my Department is under discussion and is likely to be of the order of £2 million.
Consideration is being given to the reconstitution of the information society commission in the light of the recommendations of the outgoing commission. I expect to bring proposals to Government in this regard shortly.