Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Subhead A5 deals with the information society and e-inclusion. An increase of almost €4 million is involved. We pride ourselves on our ability to attract technology companies, but we have been particularly lethargic in the roll-out of services in an e-environment, and one only has to go back to the debacle about the broker, e-government and the e-delivery of services, which seems largely to have fallen flat on its face and gone away quietly.

Based on a renewed focus on the economy and focusing on issues of, perhaps, greater importance, would it be fair to assume the Government is continuing a lack of investment in the delivery of services through the Internet or in an electronic environment? It is regrettable that we have not succeeded in upping our game as a nation in terms of delivering more services online and bringing it through a central processing system.