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Link-up aims to get Government on-line
Thursday, February 01 2001
by Rory Kelleher


Getting Government services on-line is the aim of a new partnership between
Eircom.net and Innovatia, a Canadian-based IP technology developer.

"The partnership between Eircom.net and Innovatia seeks to use technology to
enable Government to provide a range of Government public services on-line. The
benefit is that the public can access these services through a range of different
services, including the touch-tone phone at home," said Aidan Finnegan, Director
of Corporate Business, Eircom.net. Finnegan said people could also access the
services through desk top's PC's, palm pilots, and WAP mobile phones. 



A report by the Information Society Commission identified passport applications,
motor tax and driver licence renewals, as the services which the Irish public
most wanted to be available on-line.



"The Internet continues to drive the demand for new and innovative ways for us
to do business. We constantly look to identify and source the relevant
technologies that will enable our customers to switch on to e-business and
e-Government," said Finnegan



Eircom.net said it will use the Nterweb platform and applications to service the
increasing demand for multimedia and interactive services in Ireland.



"Nterweb is a proven quality product which makes the interface between citizen
and Government more efficient and cost effective," said Robert Neal, President
of Innovatia Inc.



He said the company's products had already proved successful with service
providers across Europe and North America.



Innovatia provides a variety of solutions for Governments, enterprises and
service providers, including Interactive Television, e-business solutions as well
as Web-based knowledge services.



The Irish Government already has an on-line tax return service with the Revenue
Commissioners' ROS on-line service.



Getting Government services and Departments on-line is one of the main aims of
Ireland's e-commerce strategy, as it is proven way of encouraging the development
of e-commerce.