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Speaking at an industry briefing on e-government this week, director Brid Carter of the Local Government Computer Services Board said tenders posted on the procurement Web site at http://etenders.gov.ie were already attracting more than double the number of proposals usually received for projects.
"In the past we may have seen 10 to 20 companies interested, but now we're getting 70 to 80 companies, and just recently we received 40 responses on one tender," Carter said. "We may have to look at some kind of pre-qualification for vendors if this turns out to be more than a transition peak in interest."
The etenders Web site currently displays a listing of all public sector procurement opportunities currently being advertised in the OJEC, national and local press. There is no charge either to contracting authorities or to the public for using the site.
Carter said that press advertisements for tenders are not a legal requirement, and said she expected that within a year, press adverts would only be "pointer" ads steering companies to the etenders Web site. Within another year she said she expected the tenders to appear in OJEC and on-line only, with no advertisements in the press. But she noted that the process would be a careful one, with efforts made to ensure suppliers are familiar and comfortable with using the on-line service.
The computer services board director was speaking as part of a wide-ranging briefing in Dublin Castle on Monday, designed to answer Irish companies' questions about ongoing e-government projects. Speakers on the panel included Oliver Ryan and Victor Galvin of Reach, Chris Costello from the Department of Health and Children, Joe Nugent of the Department of Finance and coordinator Colm Butler of the Information Society Policy Unit at the Department of the Taoiseach.
Butler noted that although the industry briefing was advertised only on the etenders Web site, it was booked out within 48 hours. "This is only our initial briefing, and we have been overwhelmed by the response," Butler told the auditorium of around 300 attendees. The ISPU is expected to hold a second briefing later in the spring if there is sufficient interest.
Although no date has been set, Butler said the new Action Plan from the Information Society Policy Unit is likely to be published some time in March, outlining recommendations to further e-government in Ireland, with a focus on inclusion.
The Action Plan is expected to take on board recommendations from a report by the Cabinet committee on infrastructure, and strongly urge the government to help facilitate the roll-out of affordable, always-on Internet access at the local level all across Ireland.
Also at the briefing, representatives from Reach, the cross-departmental agency aimed at bringing e-government projects to the public, said that Reach would launch a proof of concept of Ireland's so-called "public services broker" in the first week of March, at http://www.reachservices.ie.
Using their public services number, members of the public will be able to register for and become authenticated to use the service, which will include tools to fill out selected government forms on-line.
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