Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2004
561 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if all public services provided by his Department that are capable of electronic delivery are available electronically through a single point of contact, as was promised in the joint programme; and if not, if he will make a statement or explanation in respect of each service not yet so provided. [17567/04]
View answerThere are a number of public services capable of electronic delivery by my Department. The key service in terms of volume of transactions and customers is motor tax renewal. This service has been available over the Internet to vehicle owners nationwide at http://www.motortax.ie since February 2004. The service has already been used by over 120,000 customers, paying almost €30 million in motor tax.
In the case of on-line notification of change of vehicle ownership, a preliminary business analysis has been undertaken and work on making the service available through vehicle traders will begin this year to go live in 2005. In the case of on-line application for archaeological licences, my Department has recently invited tenders for the development of a national archaeology website, which will include a facility to apply and pay for archaeological licences. The development contract will be awarded shortly and the service will be available in early 2005.
Services are not currently being delivered through a central Government portal as this is not yet available to my Department. However, I understand that the first phase of the public services broker being provided by Reach will go live towards the end of this month and that a further phase of the portal, including some on-line service provision, will be available in the autumn. In addition, my Department provides information on a range of services through its website, http:// www.environ.ie and through a number of dedicated sites such as http://www.enfo.ie, http:// www.buildingsofireland.ie and http:// www.irishspatialstrategy.com.
