The Irish government is to develop a central gateway for eGovernment services, offering an easy way to access services from across the country’s public administrations. The ‘Digital Service Gateway’ is one of ten priorities set out in the eGovernment Strategy 2017 – 2020, published on 27 July.
The gateway will offer high quality services, that are secure, reliable and easy to use, the government writes in the strategy. “We recognise the clear requirement from our citizens and businesses to have a similar user experience in dealing with government as they would have in dealing with the best of the retail and banking sectors”, it explained.
“The expectations of our people are very clear in terms of more convenient, intuitive and joined-up digital services; delivering on these expectations will be one of my key priorities going forward”, Minister of State for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment Patrick O’Donovan is quoted as saying in a statement.
The government also intends to extend the existing eID capabilities (MyGovID). The introduction of eID cards is controversial in Ireland. However, implementing eID in the Digital Service Gateway will help users avoid having to provide the same information multiple times, and improve the overall user-experience, the government explains in the strategy.
Another priority is to increase the use of Eircode, an electronic postcode system giving each home and business a unique code, to allow data-driven government services.
Ireland also wants to develop a National Data Infrastructure, to improve its data-sharing capabilities. This is to standardise the collection, processing, classification, storage, transmission of and access to key Government data assets. It will include a set of principles, standards, codes, policies, systems and infrastructures overseen by an appropriate governance model.
Other priorities include continued development of the Open Data portal, simplification of the public administration’s IT infrastructure, improving governance, and enhancing the IT skills of Ireland’s civil service staff.
More information:
eGovernment Strategy 2017–2020 announcement
eGovernment Strategy 2017–2020 (PDF)