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Announcing the plan called 'New Connections', An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, TD, said that despite the major stock market "correction" in 2000 and 2001, "We must caution strongly against any sense of complacency." He continued, "A renewed commitment is needed to address the competitiveness challenge of the Information Society in the context of a less favourable global economic environment."
The government set out a number of ambitious targets for Ireland in its attempt to continue to promote Ireland as a technology and e-commerce hub. Plans are divided into two areas. The first area is called key infrastructures, which deals with issues such as broadband Internet, the regulatory environment and e-government. The second area is called supporting frameworks, which addresses, e-business, research and development, education and what is called e-inclusion.
Broadband, which has been a contentious topic in Ireland for years, is addressed first in the report and is described as "fundamental to all Information Society objectives." According to New Connections, the government wants to see the widespread availability of affordable, always-on broadband Internet for businesses and consumers throughout Ireland within three years.
If this were not ambitious enough, the government's plan is not only to ensure that broadband is rolled out, it says it wants to see Ireland within the top decile of OECD countries for broadband connectivity by 2005. Users can look forward to broadband speeds of 5mbit/s to the home and business users will have access to "substantially" higher speeds within 10 years to 15 years, New Connections claims, making Ireland the first country in Europe to make this level of broadband service widely available to its people.
And to reach this ambitious goal the Department of the Taoiseach says the Irish government will prioritise the development of open-access, local access networks, using the EUR200 million e-commerce measure allocation under the National Development Plan. Also, the government says it will promote competition between different companies, "to the optimum extent," and will intervene only in areas where the private sector alone will not deliver the necessary infrastructure.
E-government will be another integral part of the plan. According to New Connections, the government plans to have all public services that are capable of electronic delivery available on-line, through the Public Services Broker, by 2005.
The rollout of this intrepid part of the Information Society plan is important because e-government is increasingly seen internationally as an indicator of wider Information Society development, New Connections says.
Already Ireland's government is considered a leader in e-government, according to an EU benchmarking exercise in November 2001, which reported that Ireland had programmes such as Reach, Oasis, Basis, Revenue On-Line, the Public Services Broker, the Information Society Fund and dozens of other services in progress or already on the Net.
But in moving forward, Ireland's government says that the Public Services Broker will play a central part of e-government by giving users a single point through which they can access virtually all services, with individuals who will act as liaisons to help citizens find the specific service they need, whether on-line or off line.
A test of the Public Services Broker project is currently underway in Donegal.
Importantly, New Connections paints a picture of the future of Ireland's e-government where services are much more interactive than what is already available. Such services include the ability to apply for items such as passports and driver's licences on-line, as well as motor taxes, marriage certificates, planning applications and welfare services.
For business, New Connections says it hopes to make work permit documents and applications available on the Net, as well as mining licences, land registration documents, tax payments, and Companies Registration Office documents, among others.
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