There are four key components in the legislative and regulatory framework proposed to promote the development of electronic commerce and digital industries in Ireland. The range of regulat ory instruments recognises the need for a multi-disciplinary and connected approach in our drive to promote electronic commerce and the information society. These measures, together with a number of initiatives being taken by our Department and its agencies, are set to give us a leading role in e-commerce and will serve to create a strong Internet economy in Ireland.
The legislative and regulatory instruments cover: framework legislation to give legal certainty to electronic transactions, consumer protection measures, legislation on data protection, and copyright legislation.
The Electronic Commerce Bill, 2000, was published on Thursday 6 April. The Bill was introduced in the Seanad and passed all Stages in the Seanad yesterday, 19 April 2000. The legislation provides for the legal recognition of electronic contracts, electronic writing, electronic signatures and the admissibility of electronic evidence in courts and creates legal equivalence between the paper based world and the electronic world. The Bill is jointly sponsored by the Department of Public Enterprise and our own Department. The legislation will apply to both commercial and non-commercial transactions and will, furthermore, enable government and public administration to deliver its services on-line.
Additional budgetary implications of the legislation are expected to be minimal and will arise only in the context of publicising the legislation and in bringing forward any upgrading of existing computer systems in public bodies, which would in any event, have been required. Indeed, savings may be envisaged as the legislation coupled with administrative measures being taken in a number of Departments to deliver services on-line, will permit the delivery of services to the citizen and to business in a faster and more cost efficient manner.
Our Department also has responsibility for consumer protection measures. Consumer confidence is a vital component in the growth of e-commerce. This Government is determined to ensure that consumer protection in the virtual world, will receive no less attention than in the terrestrial world. To that end, supplementary measures are also needed to protect and inform the consumer, who buys goods and services on the Internet. I will be making regulations over the coming months to give effect to the draft EU Directive on E-Commerce and EU Directive 97/7/EC on Distance Selling of Goods and Services (Excluding Financial Services). Financial services is the subject of a separate directive, which is still at working group level in the Council.