Ireland Ranked First in Europe for e-Government

Ireland has been placed first in a benchmarking exercise published in a European Commission report called “Digitising Public Services in Europe: Putting ambition into action”.

According to the report, the availability of government services across Europe has increased from 69 per cent to 82 per cent from 2009 to 2010.

The metrics for the report are especially significant for Ireland in a time of recession, as they focused on two essential public services: ‘finding a job’ and ‘starting a company’.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda said: "I am pleased that increasing numbers of EU citizens can now use online public services for major things like looking for a job, filing tax declarations or registering new companies. Member States who make basic public services fully available online can make life easier for their citizens and businesses, while reducing their own costs."

While focusing on job creation and support services, the report also looked at 20 other basic public services including car registration and tax returns. The best performers in the area of e-Government according to the report were Austria, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Sweden. The report commended these countries for having “the entire list of those basic services fully online.”

Looking at the specific services that are aimed at supporting entrepreneurs, the study examined the amount of red tape that was necessary to start a company.

The report found “that 55 per cent of services required to start up a company are provided either through a dedicated portal or automatically in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Sweden and the UK. But only 46 per cent of useful services for the unemployed are currently delivered through a dedicated portal.”

The document also mentioned areas where the new Irish government could save money. It said that the area of e-procurement was, overall, not well established across Europe, although many countries are trying to improve this. It said, “if e-procurement were fully available, and more widely used, it could produce cost savings on public purchases as high as 30 per cent.”

In welcoming the report, outgoing Minister for Finance, Mr Brian Lenihan, said: “I am delighted with this outcome. It proves that the renewed focus by the

Government on e-Government since 2008 has yielded dividends in raising Ireland to the top of such an influential international benchmark.”

The Minister praised the efforts of staff across the public service who have worked diligently to achieve this result, highlighting that Ireland is now a leader in exploiting the digital economy.

The Minister said that the report is an opportunity for the next Irish government to further advance in this area by making public services leaner and more efficient.

The benchmark analyses 12 basic online services for citizens:

1. Income Taxes,
2. Job Search, 
3. Social Security Benefits,
4. Personal Documents, 
5. Car Registration, 
6. Applications for Building Permission,
7. Declarations to the Police, 
8. Public Libraries,
9. Birth and Marriage Certificates, 
10. Enrolment in Higher Education, 
11. Announcement of Moving,
12. Health-related Services,
    and 8 online public services for businesses:
    
    1. Social Contribution for Employees, 
    2. Corporate Tax, 
    3. VAT, 
    4. Registration of a New Company, 
    5. Submission of Data to the Statistical Office,
    6. Customs Declarations, 
    7. Environment-related Permits, and 
    8. Public Procurement.

-.theepochtimes.com