Gay Mitchell
Question:64 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government when he will initiate improvements to his Department’s website. [3714/05]
View answerWednesday, 9 February 2005
Questions (21, 22)
Michael Noonan
Question:102 Mr. Noonan asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on whether his Department’s website is suitably user friendly to meet the needs of its customers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3990/05]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 102 together.
I accept that my Department's main website, environ.ie, is in need of improvement and updating. In addition to environ.ie, which is the main Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government website, my Department operates some 16 special interest websites dealing with particular aspects of the Department’s activities.
Over the last few years extensive changes have been made to reflect the changed structure of the Department and to provide direct access from the main Department site to newly developed sites such as "Motor Tax Online" and "Buildings of Ireland" as well as the specialist websites relating to Met Éireann and heritage areas. The award winning motortax.ie, which enables customers to pay their motor tax over the Internet, is considered to be a major success story. In its first year alone, this site has handled over 470,000 transactions representing over €100 million in revenue. Almost 22% of eligible motor tax business nationally is now transacted online and over 35% of eligible business in the Dublin area. This is a welcome success and one that we intend to build on in the years to come.
My Department is committed to continuing further improvement of all its websites and is undertaking a number of initiatives to this end. A review of the site structure and content has been completed and this will feed into the development of an entirely new site later this year. In the interim, the site's home page has been revised with a view to overcoming technical difficulties being experienced by some users. A series of other improvements has also been undertaken to improve the performance, accessibility, look and feel of the site. These changes are currently being tested and will go live before the end of the month.