According to the 9th European Commission eGovernment Benchmarking report published earlier today, Ireland is ranked top out of thirty-two European countries for the provision and sophistication of online services.
The report rates Ireland’s online availability at 100%, compared to an 82% EU average. The sophistication of online public services in Ireland is recorded as 100%, with sophistication for business services and sophistication for citizen services both achieving 100%, compared to 94% and 87% EU averages respectively.
The report, titled ‘Digitising Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action’, has been welcomed by Ireland’s finance minister, Brian Lenihan, who commented,
“I am delighted with this outcome. It proves that the renewed focus by the Government on eGovernment since 2008 has yielded dividends in raising Ireland to the top of such an influential international benchmark.”
Minister Lenihan added,
“While this is a very positive result for Ireland, we cannot rest on our laurels. We view this very much as a starting point. As part of the Croke Park Agreement we have set out a vision for an increasingly integrated Public service which is leaner and more effective, the eGovernment strategy is a key element of this Transforming Public Services Programme and the report today shows the Government’s actions are working.
“As set out in the National Recovery Plan 2011- 2014 the Government has identified eGovernment as a priority and I want to see Departments and public bodies continuing to pursue this agenda with vigour. There will be a greater focus on integrating the back-end systems of public bodies, on the use of shared ICT approaches and cloud computing, on publishing public service data, on implementing measures to secure greater take-up of online and digital services and applications, and on providing online facilities for increased collaboration and feedback with customers.”
The report quotes a myriad of facts and figures that continually praise Ireland’s achievements on the delivery of online services, and can be viewed in full on the European Commission’s website.
Image courtesy of Kieran Lynam on Flickr.