Vol. 549 No. 4
1 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the main findings of the final report of the consultants on the e-Cabinet project; if it intended to implement the recommendations in the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4337/02]
2 Mr. Noonan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on progress in the implementation of the e-Cabinet project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6277/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.
The main purpose of the e-Cabinet initiative is to deploy information and communications technologies, ICTs, to enable Cabinet support services to be managed more efficiently and effectively. The initiative has progressed well. Consultants were engaged to identify opportunities to apply technologies to the Cabinet process. Provision was made for consultation with key stakeholders. Based on the research and consultation and working closely with the Cabinet secretariat in my Department, the consultants have set out a model for an electronic cabinet system and have identified the considerable benefits which will result. The report of the consultants, published recently, drew on the experiences of key stakeholders, including Ministers and Secretaries General, and was prepared in close collaboration with the Cabinet secretariat.
The report places particular emphasis on the scope for electronic management of Cabinet papers. For example, it proposes that memoranda for Government, the Cabinet agenda, Government decisions, etc. will in future be disseminated electronically. This will result in greater speed and efficiency in the process. Another important aspect of the initiative is that document structures will be examined to see how complex proposals might be presented more effectively at Cabinet. This will involve changes in the structure of memoranda for Government so that key data are presented up front, the use of embedded audio visual material where that would be helpful and other enhancements of a similar type. The Cabinet guidelines will be incorporated into the memorandum drafting processes throughout Departments so that anyone drafting a memorandum will be guided through those requirements. The project will also electronically support and help to speed up the consultation process which takes place between Departments as memoranda are drafted.
The new documents structures will be designed so that they will be more accessible on screen. This will impact on all users but especially on Ministers who will have the option of dispensing with some or all of the existing paper based memoranda in favour of screen based ones. The challenge is not just to make documents available electronically at Cabinet meetings, but to present them in a way which overcomes the difficulties normally associated with reading lengthy documents on screen. The report envisages the use of web enabled documents to address this. Additionally, the technology to be deployed at the Cabinet table will support functions other than accessing Cabinet documents. For example, Ministers will be able to send and receive e-mail during meetings and departmental briefing can also be provided on line for each Minister. The introduction of technologies to the Cabinet table will be carried out in a way which respects the culture within which those meetings take place, specifically that they will not dominate the human interactions which are at the heart of the process.
These are some of the key features of the model. The project is now proceeding to implementation and the next step, on which my Department is now working, is to retain expertise to progress the detailed design of the system with a view to producing a prototype in early 2003 and progressing to full deployment thereafter. As implementation progresses, issues of training will be addressed and will involve all users. This is a flagship Government e-initiative. It will be co-ordinated with other key initiatives to ensure the necessary synergies are achieved, for example by sharing infrastructure and by using standard software authoring tools across Departments and processes.
Deputies will recall that I undertook to provide for briefing on the project for the main parties. I am pleased that Deputy Quinn was able to avail of this opportunity and I will be happy to arrange a similar briefing for Deputy Noonan if he wishes. The text of the full report, as recently published, is available on my Department's website and copies have been placed in the Oireachtas Library.
I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive reply. With regard to his last sentence, I wondered if I had missed something when he said the report had been published but, obviously, it has not yet been circulated and I do not recall it coming across my desk. Not having seen the report but having heard the Taoiseach's summary, do I understand correctly that the next stage is for wider consultation to take place with the end users of this process, which we welcome and support? Will the Taoiseach outline what consultation will take place? The Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Taoiseach's Department consulted all parties in this House in relation to the reforms recently announced. It was the product of that inter-work ing group, rather than the Government initiative, that brought about those reforms. Since the present incumbents around the Cabinet table will not be there after the next general election, the way in which this system is introduced has to apply to all potential Cabinet seat occupiers and not just the present group.
I already made it clear that the process to date and the consultants' report drew on the experience of all the key stakeholders, including Ministers and Secretaries General. It was prepared in close collaboration with the Cabinet secretariat which has the responsibility of co-ordinating and providing the information. The report placed particular emphasis on the scope for electronic management of Cabinet papers, including memoranda for Government, the Cabinet agenda, Government decisions and dissemination of information before and after meetings. In reply to Deputy Quinn's point with regard to the benefits of the system and consultation about it, full consultation can take place if he wishes, including a full demonstration of the system by the consultants before they move on to the next stage of building a model, which will take about a year. It will probably take about another year to achieve full implementation. If the Deputy wishes, I will go through some of the benefits.
Is it envisaged that the physical furniture of the Cabinet room – the Cabinet table in particular – will be specifically designed to have built-in screens if, as the Taoiseach indicated, the culture of the meetings – the phrase used in the report – is not to be obstructed or in any way inhibited by the introduction of e-Cabinet facilities? Will there be laptop computers on the table of the Cabinet room or will screens be built into the Cabinet table, with all that entails? Has that point been reached in the evolution of this project?
The detailed design stage has not yet been reached but the system will involve built-in screens. There are existing models of the system, as used by corporate boards and other organisations. The ECOFIN Council is moving rapidly towards the use of this system and there was a trial run at a meeting of the European Council – with not quite the same enthusiasm, I might add. The system uses built-in screens.
Will the new system require more space in the Cabinet room?
It can be fitted in quite neatly, using recessed and slanted screens. Obviously, the new system will require a period of adjustment. The preparatory work to date indicates that a great deal of paper can be eliminated, though, perhaps, not all of it.
However it will take some time to change the culture. People who have been involved in this work and work elsewhere believe it can happen fairly quickly. It will probably take another year on design stage and building the system and probably another year in implementation but that is not long. The work they have done over the past three years has been enormous. They are changing a system that is 60 or 70 years old. They have highlighted the benefits and spent a great deal of time looking at security and other aspects. They are happy, confident and comfortable that they can achieve it.
Part of the initiative seems to be to ensure that citizens have access to State services but, unless broadband facilities are available throughout the State at the same rates, any such provision will be provided unequally among citizens and the national service will be incapable of that provision. Could the Taoiseach report once more on the roll out of affordable broadband services in all parts of the country, particularly outside the greater Dublin area?
These questions are just on the e-Cabinet proposals. There are many other issues that are current but, if the Ceann Comhairle wishes, I will address this. The work begun by the interdepartmental group which started last September is now complete. There will be meetings this week about the next move and the means of moving forward. As I have already explained, the State will have to be directly involved in this. The group is looking at a three year plan as part of a longer term plan for rolling it out. It is clear the private sector might assist – they have had all the consultation meetings I spoke about the last time – but the State will have to do part of the funding.
The report, which will be out shortly, explains how this system can be best dealt with and the kind of competition that will be required to run it. It will not be rolled out all over the country – it is not in any other country – but the intention is to try it out in a number of areas, using different technologies such as fibre optics, DSL and other systems and schemes. They will try out about 20 different areas and try and build on it from there. The report will be issued in March.
On the e-Cabinet project the Taoiseach, in his initial reply, suggested that it would be possible in the future – and possibly the practice – that Government memoranda would be constructed electronically and that Departments would consult with each other on an electronic basis. If we consider the records that will be kept for historical purposes for the archives, how can he ensure that there is a final hardback copy and that historians in the future can see the development of policy and the input by various Departments because, as memoranda are altered on the screen, the previous copy disappears and only the latest copy remains? Does an issue arise here?
The Taoiseach refers to the electronic transfer of memoranda to screens for each Minister at the Cabinet table. In circumstances such as that, how will the Cabinet minutes be kept which are so essential to the work of Government? Will they be kept electronically or on hard copy?
First, a comprehensive electronic archive will result from this, facilitating the creation of new information resources. This is seen as one of the great plusses by those who have worked on this project where this archive can be used for new information sources and purposes and for research by historians in the future. It is already being used in many areas so that people can access records.
In relation to the change in process, my note says we are still working out whether each stage of the draft will actually be changed or whether we keep a record as we go through. I wonder if that will matter so much because people will look back at the content of the memoranda to find what is finally decided. The basis of the work to date is that it must comply with the cabinet handbook procedure provisions in authorising the memoranda so anything the handbook says will have to form the basis of the system.
In relation to Deputy Noonan's last point about the documents on screen, the whole idea is to move, over time, to a paperless society so that the minutes, the agenda and everything else will be electronic. I can see much of the paper being eliminated early on but it will be a few years before we get to the end result using no paper. The wizards behind the process believe it can move to a paper free system. As people get into this system, see the benefits and are trained in it – which will be an important aspect – they will take to it quickly.
