The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin T.D., has today published the Government’s new approach to eGovernment, eGovernment 2012-2015.
Speaking on the publication Minister Howlin stated “The Government recognises the need for public services to be delivered faster, better and more efficiently to citizens and businesses. Intelligent, targeted use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and eGovernment are key enablers for these improvements. The new strategy places citizens and businesses at the centre of eGovernment.”
This strategy challenges Public Bodies to build on successes to date and to continue developing new services that meet the needs of citizens and businesses. It contains implementation and governance requirements that have been approved by Government and must be adhered to by Public Bodies”.
The Minister noted that the strategy is closely aligned with the Public Service Reform Plan and progress is already being made. “A Public Service Chief Information Officer Council has already been established, chaired by my Department, to progress key ICT and eGovernment issues. In addition, my Department has established a Data Sharing Clearing House to advance data sharing across the public service”.
The strategy is available at: egovstrategy.gov.ie
Follow eGovernment on Twitter @govdotie
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Notes to Editor
Five Key Principles of eGovernment 2012 – 2015
1. The needs of citizens and businesses are at the centre of eGovernment.
2. Public services should be delivered through the most appropriate channels.
3. eGovernment should reduce the administrative burden for citizens and businesses.
4. eGovernment projects should reflect Business Process Improvements, delivering demonstrable efficiency, effectiveness and Value for Money gains.
5. Public Bodies should work to ensure that the online channel is the most attractive option for customers.
Key Actions
eGovernment 2012 – 2015 contains 44 actions across eight key priority areas which will ensure that the progress already achieved will continue and that Ireland will be in a position to benefit from the opportunities offered by existing and emerging technologies. A 45th action sets out the governance arrangements to ensure that progress with eGovernment plans is appropriately monitored. (See attached).
By the end of 2013 a series of projects will be assessed to see if they are suitable for electronic delivery and where appropriate implemented. Examples of services that will be looked at include:
Renewal of adult passports
National rollout of fixyourstreet.ie across all Local Authorities
Planning Applications and Objections
DevPlanGIS (national spatial data information system)
Partial application for Driver Licences
Welfare Benefit and Entitlement Applications
Incorporation of Companies
Relevant Contracts Tax
Manifest System for Trade Facilitation
Business Reporting XBRL for Corporation Tax
Land registry services for individuals
Recent initiatives in eGovernment
The D/PER has launched a portal for over 300 public services available online:
http://www.gov.ie/
The D/PER hosted a conference on eGovernment Successes on 28 March – see http://www.gov.ie/egovernment-events/march-2012/
Last week, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, T.D., launched www.myplan.ie – a free and easy to use public information system about the development plan or local area plan in your local area.
Another key initiative is the Public Service Card. To date over 6,200 Public Services Cards have already issued and the card is being trialled in three Department of Social Protection local offices. This rollout will gather pace over the course of this year and Public Bodies will now be required to consider the potential benefits of the card in terms of how they deliver their services to citizens and businesses. The Public Services Card is a Polycarbon card containing “contactless” chip, photograph and signature which will act as a key for access to public services in general, identifying and authenticating individuals as appropriate and where required.
As part of the Public Service Reform Plan published in November 2011, the area of eGovernment includes a number of time lined actions. Full details are available at: http://reformplan.per.gov.ie/appendix-i/
Action No. eGovernment 2012 - 2015 Action
1 Public Bodies will continue to provide information and transactional services online and through all appropriate channels.
2 Public Bodies will provide access to their eGovernment services via a prominent “Online Services” section of their website.
3 Public Bodies will group their transactional services around life events, where appropriate. These should be integrated across organisational boundaries where relevant and feasible.
4 Where a deadline for a service is approaching, e.g., state examinations, tax returns, grant applications, or in the case of a specific event or occurrence, relevant information should be highlighted on the organisation’s homepage and through other appropriate channels.
5 Public Service organisations will
• notify any existing or new services to CMOD for inclusion and direct linkage on www.gov.ie
• have a link to www.gov.ie on their home pages
• optimise website content and design to achieve best placement in search results and to improve traffic to and time spent on the websites
6 Public Bodies will continue to push out e-payment facilities appropriate to their customers’ requirements.
7 Public Bodies will meet EU targets on e-procurement.
8 Upon successful completion of the e-invoicing pilot by the National Procurement Service, e-invoicing will be introduced which will be open to all public bodies and suppliers.
9 Public bodies will review existing web provision of services to determine if an online or offline “app” based and/or a mobile optimised approach could better facilitate mobile users. When new eGovernment services are being developed, these will, where appropriate, be designed to be usable on smartphones and other smart mobile devices.
10 All public bodies will develop a social media usage policy and will prepare a short plan regarding how they will maximise the potential of social media to improve access to services, e.g. appointments, advertising key dates for applications, opening hours, public works etc.
11 The Citizens Information Board will explore the possibility of using social media and networking to deliver an online Citizens Information Centre.
12 All public bodies will identify opportunities for using electronic collaboration tools to empower citizens and businesses and to encourage their engagement.
13 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will develop an electronic channel allowing citizens and businesses to suggest potential new eGovernment services and to track progress of their suggestions.
14 Opportunities for users to provide feedback should be integrated into the design of new electronic systems to facilitate suggestions from those that use the systems with a view to ensuring continuous improvement. This feedback could be through the system itself or through links with social media where appropriate.
15 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will, using the Public Services Card, develop a common facility where Public Service customers can view their information and access services.
16 All Public Bodies will analyse existing legislation, regulations, and service procedures in the work and processes of the Body to determine provisions that could promote the use of electronic channels.
17 Public bodies will examine the potential for incentives to encourage take up of electronic services where making the service mandatory is not possible or in the interim to a service being mandated as electronic only.
Examples of incentives include:
• if a fee is involved, can different fees be charged for the on and off-line service, the electronic service being cheaper? (see example from the Companies Registration Office – reduced fees for online registration. http://www.cro.ie/en/downloads-company.aspx)
• can electronic applications be given priority and processed ahead of off-line applications?
• can electronic applications be given a later closing date for return? (see example from Revenue for customers who both file and pay electronically. http://www.revenue.ie/en/practitioner/calendar-note.html)
18 Public bodies will encourage take-up of electronic services by raising awareness of electronic services and the incentives available for using them. Accordingly, public bodies will promote and direct users to electronic options whenever possible e.g. via the body’s official website, in press releases, on printed forms, information leaflets, letter heads, email footers etc. and/or through the use of appropriate social networking channels.
19 Public bodies will assess if those using electronic channels can monitor the progress of their request/application etc. and will put this facility
in place, where appropriate.
20 All public bodies will monitor and evaluate take-up of eGovernment services with a view to achieving the 50% (for citizens) and 80% (for businesses) targets set out in the EU eGovernment Action Plan (by 2015).
Where take-up falls short of the EU targets, public bodies will identify, through direct interaction with citizens and businesses, reasons for this and take appropriate actions to address these reasons. As well as actions public bodies might take with a particular eGovernment service, these actions could include assisting citizens and businesses, for example, through targeted local training initiatives or improved use of online access in public offices such as libraries.
21 All public bodies will publish appropriate data in machine-readable formats to facilitate re-use. Initially this will include data newly released (in reports, on websites etc.). Over time, public bodies should identify additional data that could be released as open data. This action will enable individuals and businesses to use data in ways most helpful to them including developing applications relevant to their own needs and interests.
22 Data released as images and/or included in reports that are published in formats such as PDF should also be made available in parallel in re-useable formats.
23 Each Public Body will be required to identify datasets it holds and release these by default subject to legal or other restrictions e.g. Data Protection, Official Secrets, commercial sensitivity, etc. If there are datasets that a body determines cannot be released, a case to that effect will have to be made to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
24 The CSO will assess the legislative environment with a view to identifying the scope for additional and greater uses of statistical data, including any potential legislative changes where necessary.
25 The CSO will develop a code of practice and standards for the gathering and use of data for statistical purposes in the Public Service.
26 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in conjunction with the CSO will develop an integrated approach to the collection of administrative data across the Public Service, including a strategy to promote consistent approaches to, and systematic uses of data (including identifiers, classifications and geo-spatial/postcode data) in service planning and delivery.
27 Public bodies will evaluate the potential for exploiting digital mapping and GIS technologies in ways that are affordable, sustainable and of relevance to the customer bases of their services, taking into account the personal or commercial sensitivities of the data.
28 Public bodies will identify data sets they hold that contain location based data and will make these details available to other public bodies where appropriate to reduce duplication and to facilitate greater area-based targeting of public services.
29 The Public Service CIO Council will work with relevant Public Bodies to progress the development of a location identifier to help improve service delivery.
30 Public Bodies will seek to extract maximum benefit from Post Codes when these are introduced.
31 Applications based on the Single Customer View system will be rolled out over time by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and availed of by Public bodies.
32 The Department of Social Protection will continue rollout of the Public Services Card and develop an awareness programme for both Public Service bodies and for residents on the availability of the card and its potential.
33 The Department of Social Protection and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will agree on an investment programme and the allocation of required resources to support the rollout of the Public Services Card.
34 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will examine the best way of using the Public Services Card and its underlying registration facilities and data services as the means of accessing public services over electronic channels.
35 The Department of Social Protection, in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, will seek Government approval to mandate all public bodies to use the Public Services Card and/or associated data services as the means of accessing their high-value services. Organisations must not use alternative cards without providing a very strong reason for not using the Public Service Card. This reason will have to be signed by their organisation’s Accounting Officer and agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
36 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will ensure that there is a common mechanism to allow customers to authenticate themselves for public services.
37 A common vocabulary for identifying businesses using the Revenue Commissioner’s Business Register will be introduced and used by all Public Bodies.
38 The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will introduce legislation to allow public bodies to collect one of the business identifiers included in the Revenue Register and match these identifiers against that Register.
39 Revenue, in conjunction with relevant Departments, will provide technology solutions to allow public bodies to match data against the Revenue Register and/or synchronise with it.
40 Public bodies will promote practices and procedures that enable single point of data capture for cross system use, both within and across organisations.
41 When new eGovernment services are being developed, these will, where appropriate, be designed to support cross organisational data sharing opportunities and to facilitate interoperability. This will be a key element of the National Interoperability Framework which will be prepared to comply with the EU Digital Agenda.
42 Public Bodies will make data that is in high demand from other Public Bodies available across Government Networks for re-use, as appropriate and where legally permissible, to minimise duplication in data-sharing.
43 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will ensure that a Federated Authentication System is put in place.
44 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will chair a Data Sharing Clearing House to review whether specific data can be released or shared.
45 All Public Bodies will develop detailed eGovernment Plans, in accordance with advice issued by CMOD following consultation with the Public Service CIO Council. Regular progress reports will be submitted by CMOD to the Cabinet Committee on Public Service Reform and to the Government.