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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 15 Dec 1998

Vol. 498 No. 4

Written Answers. - Information Technology.

John McGuinness

Ceist:

229 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps, if any, being taken by his Department to encourage individuals and private companies to deal with his Department by the use of information technology; the schemes, if any, in place to grant aid or assist education in the use of information technology in the day to day dealings of his Department; the advancement, if any, in his Department's plans in relation to conducting business by E-commerce; and the initiatives, if any, being taken in this regard. [27653/98]

I recognise the importance of this developing area and the massive potential for improved service delivery that it offers to my Department, which has some 200,000 clients.

My Department actively supports the use of the Internet. The Irish Government's website was established in co-ordination with the Department of Finance. My Department was one of the first presences on this central site. Our site has existed since 1996 and has gone through a process of constant development. The information available on this site ranges from press releases, detailed information on my Department's schemes and services through to the farmers charter and agricultural statistics. The Net has proved to be an invaluable resource for example, in my Department's response to the BSE crisis we have been able to broadcast our position to key export markets in their own languages. My Department monitors access to our site and the figures indicate a high degree of usage.
It is my intention to build on this foundation.
This presence on the Net has allowed for e-mail access to my Department. To date, contacts have broadly related to the retrieval of general information. For 1999, it is my intention to intensify this contact by inviting applicants for our headage and premium schemes to supply an e-mail address.
Furthermore, my Department strongly supports the work of the Information Society Commission and is actively participating in the implementation of its findings. Indeed, my Department intends to develop a pilot project to allow farmers submit application forms for headage and premium schemes by e-mail. In the medium term, it should be possible to allow clients to track progress of their individual grant applications from receipt to payment.
Another area where progress is being made relates to the question of electronic funds transfer, EFT. My Department's accounting system is in the process of redevelopment and a key aspect of this on completion, will be the availability to each client of EFT. This will have obvious benefits, not least of which will be the speedier and more secure availability of funds.
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