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Ireland tops EU e-government rankings 
Thursday, June 20 2002
by Andrew McLindon


Ireland's e-government services have again topped the poll in a European Union
benchmarking exercise.

The country's on-line government offerings scored at total of 84.72 percent,
which was several points ahead of the next best EU member, Sweden. The average
score was 54.25 percent.





According to the government's Information Policy Unit, Ireland's showing was
mainly due to the services available on the HREF="http://www.reachservices.ie">www.reachservices.ie portal site and the
Revenue On-line Service (ROS). Reach allows users to access a range of public
sector information and services, while ROS allow companies and individuals to
file tax returns over the Internet.





In the EU report, Ireland was awarded full marks in 12 of the 20 benchmarked
categories. For citizen services, Ireland achieved almost double the European
average (85 percent versus 46 percent) and was rated second in services to
business, tied with Denmark and just behind Sweden.





This is the second time that Ireland's e-government initiatives have earned such
high marks from the EU. In November 2001, a similar benchmarking exercise found
that Ireland had the most comprehensive and widely used on-line government
services in Europe. At that time, the EU was particularly impressed with ROS,
which scored maximum points in the study.







The latest comparative analysis of services was conducted in April by independent
consultants Cap Gemini Ernst and Young on behalf of the European Commission. The
consultants measured 23 public services across 18 countries (the 15 EU Member
States along with Switzerland, Norway and Iceland).



Among the public services surveyed were car registration, enrolment in higher
education, VAT declaration and public procurement. The survey measured the degree
to which such services are provided on-line, by allocating percentages for
different stages of development, from simple one-way interaction to full
electronic case handling.





The Minister for the Information Society, Mary Hanafin, TD, welcomed the results
and said they vindicated the government's policies on the development of
e-government in Ireland.



"It is yet another testament to our progress in delivering on-line public
services to citizens and businesses, and the results are an independent
endorsement of Ireland's progress towards our objective of becoming a world
leader in e-government and e-commerce," said Minister Hanafin in a statement.





The Minister added that the focus now had to be on building on this success. "As
we continue to build up the citizen-centric Public Services Broker allowing easy
access to information and services, Ireland can look forward to scoring even
better in future benchmarking exercises," she remarked.