Micheál Martin
Question:7. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on developments and centralisation of the website of his Department into one Government website. [8032/19]
View answerTuesday, 26 February 2019
Questions (7, 8, 9)
Brendan Howlin
Question:8. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his Department’s new website; and the person or body responsible for updating it. [8222/19]
View answer
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:9. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the update of the website of his Department. [9289/19]
View answerOral answers (35 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, together.
Departments are currently represented online by multiple distinct websites and platforms, each providing different visual styles and user experience. A Government decision was taken in December 2017 to migrate all primary Department websites to one single portal, gov.ie. This aligns with international best practice. Gov.ie has been developed with the citizen at its centre, with an emphasis on policy and service areas, as opposed to how a Department is structured internally. Gov.ie will be the one trusted source which makes interactions with the Irish Government more citizen-focused and data-driven. Information is presented in a clear, understandable and accessible manner. Gov.ie has been used to host many cross-Government communications campaigns, including Healthy Ireland, Be Safe Online, Sláintecare, Project Ireland 2040 and information around budget 2019.
My Department was the first to migrate to gov.ie, with more to follow on a quarterly basis over the next 18 months. Our new web address is www.gov.ie/taoiseach. The next to migrate across will be the Departments Public Expenditure and Reform, Finance and Rural and Community Development, and they are now in the process of transitioning. All remaining Departments will transition between now and the end of next year.
Users of the taoiseach.ie website were notified in mid-November 2018 that the information on the taoiseach.ie website would move to the new central gov.ie website. The old taoiseach.ie website was available until 22 February and has since been archived in co-operation with the National Library of Ireland.
The Taoiseach will recall that the report into the now disbanded marketing unit in the Department of the Taoiseach demonstrated that the decision to move to a single State website is far from being accepted best practice. In fact, the head of the marketing unit, who has now been transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, produced a report which looked at only three countries and produced no evidence to say the public found it easier to access official information. The United Nations ranking for eGovernment, which was cited repeatedly as a reason for the promotion of a single site, gave a high ranking to certain states due to completely different factors, access to broadband being the most important.
In all of the controversy last year, one thing that did come out of the meagre research competed by the unit was the advice of other countries not to implement anything before first checking with the public what they want and in what form they want it. This was, of course, a piece of advice which was completely ignored. Before the Taoiseach proceeds further with the single Government portal idea, will he tell us what research has been undertaken to gauge what people want and whether they currently find it difficult to access information? What is the status of the public opinion research which was contracted back in late 2017-----
It is abandoned.
-----and which we were told would involve consultation with the Opposition leaders before it was carried out? That has been the subject of many questions in the House and it just seems to have disappeared into the ether.
I am interested in the Taoiseach's assertion that the migration of all departmental websites to a single Government portal is international best practice. He might share with us the analysis that led him to that assertion in order that we can examine best practice internationally and see the models he is aiming to replicate here. I am aware there are difficulties in regard to finding specific data since the Department of the Taoiseach website has been stood down and migrated into this new common Government website. People who are looking for information want specific departmental information and Government structural information, and they need to be clear where they are looking.
I want to ask some specific questions. What individual person has overall responsibility for this project; in other words, who is leading this migration? Has there been an assigned budget line for this project and, if so, how much has been allocated to it? When does the Taoiseach expect it to be fully completed?
The Taoiseach might share with us the evidence that migrating to a single website is the most effective and user-friendly manner to interact with the public. He might cite for us the evidence that this is what the public want. Having discrete access points that are Department-specific, whether that is in regard to social welfare or enterprise, for example, strikes me as having the best prospect of being user-friendly and easier to navigate than migrating all of the State's Departments onto one site. That, of course, is just my hunch and I could be entirely wrong. I am sure the Taoiseach is not operating on the basis of a hunch so he might cite for us the source of evidence for this approach. In addition, how much is this costing?
The Taoiseach said the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is about to transfer to this system. Did I understand correctly that the Department of Finance is to follow later?
No, it is part of this next one.
I wonder what is happening to the Revenue Commissioners.
Like the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners deal with vast amounts of personal data and queries individual to the person. That information is really important to people. The current changes being made by the Revenue Commissioners concerning smallscale employers, such as a person employing a child minder in his or her house or at the child minder's house, are generating great numbers of requests for parents, very often the mum, to comply with a huge number of new regulations. All of this detail is currently and quite properly located with the Revenue Commissioners, and it is hard enough to get an answer from them as it is very confusing currently. It is the same with social welfare queries, as both the Taoiseach and I know.
I do not get why everything should be under one roof, when the nature of some queries, like to Revenue and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, are so specific to the individual, that citizens need a trusted source to which they can go, instead of some kind of public relations outfit. Under the current changes, people will have to keep going down from the upper and opening elements of the site into the parts of the information system they really need.
I thank the Deputies for their questions and their interest in this matter. The project is being led by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO. That is not in my Department, so I have only a limited knowledge and role in this matter. That role relates largely to my Department’s website migrating over to www.mygov.ie. Turning to public opinion research, that is on ice and not a priority at present.
I am sorry?
It is not happening at present.
It has been abandoned.
It is suspended.
Forever.
Forever. Was that announced?
It was announced before.
I announced it several months ago. I am not sure whether it is international best practice but I will dig out the evidence and provide it to Deputies.
The Taoiseach said it was.
It seems to be common sense to have a single website for an organisation with different departments.
Not for the Revenue.
Many large organisations, such as RTÉ, have different-----
There may be a county council on the same website-----
-----departments. I do not think each department has its own website. The same applies to most organisations that are broken down into different departments: they have a single website and the different departments are accessed within that. The same applies to universities. It makes sense, particularly with www.mygov.ie being developed and more people using it. About 250,000 have their www.mygov.ie credentials. I imagine in a few years millions of people will have their www.mygov.ie set up and will be able to use the same password and unique identifier to transact with Government online for all sorts of different reasons and services. My understanding is that it applies to Departments and not to agencies. It would not, therefore, apply to the Revenue Commissioners. I may, however, be mistaken about that.
What happens-----
What about the cost?
It goes back to a Government Department.
That is going into the mix.
Yes, that is correct.
How much will it cost?
I do not have a figure. It is not my Department.
What Department is it?
It is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
It is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
It has data sharing and this now as well. It is being given many responsibilities.