Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Discounted rates achieved through the GVPN contract ensured the public service received maximum value for money and substantial savings in the order of €25 million per annum in its voice and data telecommunications expenditure. Savings such as the €18.41 million saved by Revenue in 2007 represent an ongoing annual value dividend from that investment in e-Government.

Research by my Department indicates that it has already been possible to identify estimated savings in the region of €86 million per annum arising from our investment in e-Government projects. These savings result, for example, from staff savings, reduced administrative overheads, reduced third party costs and reduced need for advertising. This represents the annual value of savings to the State and, in some cases, for citizens or customers of the State. It is a figure that will grow as more people avail of on-line services, as new on-line services are made available and as other benefits are identified and measured. This is further strong evidence of the success of the Government's action plan.

The report notes that some projects did not proceed. Decisions not to proceed were taken following detailed analysis of significant relevant factors. In those circumstances, a decision not to proceed represented prudent management.

The Government decision to establish the public services broker, PSB, was taken in May 2000. The broker was conceived as the shared mechanism for facilitating the delivery of on-line services to citizens on an integrated basis. The Government decided at that time that the REACH agency should be mandated to progress and build the broker. The Department of the Taoiseach was involved in an advisory capacity on the REACH board. Responsibility for REACH now lies with the Department of Finance. Specific questions related to the agency or broker should be addressed to that Department.

As the Comptroller and Auditor General's report acknowledges, elements of the e-Government strategy were innovative and ambitious and this posed special challenges. For instance, early implementation of the public services broker was contingent on successfully putting in place an on-line identity processing system. Some of the countries now regarded as being very advanced in on-line service delivery had the advantage of already having had national identity registers in place since Napoleonic times. The identity validation system being delivered has to rigorously protect personal identities and information.

Subsequent to the period covered by the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, stronger project governance measures have been put in place by the Government, including the requirement for peer review of significant projects. I draw attention to the remarks of the Comptroller and Auditor General at the Committee of Public Accounts session on 6 March where he indicated that his report should not be seen as a criticism, but one which recognised the considerable successes that have been achieved.

A new knowledge society action plan is nearing completion. It will take account of relevant international developments, such as the EU's i2010 framework, as well as the review of the Irish public service by the OECD which has just been published and, indeed, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Contrary to some reports, e-Government in this country has been a considerable success story.

The e-Cabinet system is an important example of the innovative utilisation of technology to improve public service efficiency. It is an award-winning project and is the first of its kind worldwide. It has helped to eliminate the manual distribution of papers and has streamlined processes across all Departments regarding the submission of papers to the Cabinet. Delivered under budget, it represents excellent value for money. Besides staff savings and reduction of paper usage in serving Government, it facilitates significant time savings for Ministers and senior officials. This is a real value, although difficult to quantify in financial terms.

The Government virtual private network was designed to provide all Departments and agencies with a high availability, secure and cost effective mobile and fixed line voice and data telecommunications solution through a draw-down contract. The centrally negotiated contract was to provide for continued monitoring of the market and price negotiation with the preferred carriers to ensure value for money through robust contract management arrangements and annual reviews. The GVPN contract ensured that the public service received maximum value for money and substantial savings — in the order of €25 million per annum — in its voice and data telecommunications expenditure. These discounted rates also resulted in a reduction in prices by most other major telecommunications providers for public service bodies.

The on-line motor tax, OMT, project has been extremely successful. Some 41% of eligible vehicle owners nationally are taxing their vehicles on-line and 84% of vehicles, including private cars, agricultural tractors and excavators, motorcycles and motor caravans, can have their motor tax renewed on-line. There have been significant savings in transaction time. It is estimated that at least 125,000 hours are saved annually through use of the OMT service rather than traditional attendance and queueing at local tax offices, not to mention the easing of other difficulties associated with traffic congestion and parking problems in the areas surrounding these offices. The average transaction time, including queuing, has been cut by 28 minutes by OMT. Theoretically, citizens in Dublin could have saved 61,000 hours in 2005 by using this service.

The revenue on-line service provides electronic filing, payment and account look-up facilities for 22 taxes and duties for its customers and their agents or intermediaries. Since 2004, increasing usage of ROS has delivered estimated savings of €49 million to the Revenue Commissioners in the areas of postage, printing and processing.

The Public Appointments Service has successfully introduced the website www.publicjobs.ie, which has reduced the lead time for large volume recruitment by approximately 50%. While the need to advertise all public service jobs widely and on a continuous basis remains, the emergence of www.publicjobs.ie has meant that offices and agencies can utilise the website as a major advertising vehicle at no charge. Annual staff savings to the PAS are estimated at €700,000, while staff savings to the wider public service are estimated at €250,000. Other savings include administrative overheads valued at €620,000. This equates to a total saving of €1,570,000 for the public service. It is estimated that there are additional savings of €170,000 for the user. The total estimated saving is €1,740,000.

The Property Registration Authority of Ireland, PRAI, provides on-line access to folios and maps, which is another clear example of the success of e-Government. This success is evident from the major increases in the number of legal transactions completed since 2000, 107%, and the number of dealings completed by staff members, 75%. The success of e-Government projects may be judged based on take-up — more than 3 million searches and inspections were carried out on-line by customers of the PRAI in 2007.

A total of 205 direct staff savings were identified as being due to the introduction of the animal health computer system by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Of these staff, 115 were made available for redeployment to other Departments and 90 were redeployed internally. The redeployment of 115 staff represents an annual saving of €7.3 million on salary, pension and accommodation costs and €100,000 on other administrative costs. Including those redeployed internally, this represents an ongoing annual saving of more than €13 million. While some portion of this saving was attributable to a reduction in disease levels, it is largely attributable directly to the animal health computer system.

I know this is a long answer, but it is in reply to a number of questions. By pointing out these successes I do not wish to imply that we cannot do better. In that context it is appropriate that we and all Departments, bearing in mind that each has a responsibility for the development of e-Government services relating to its remit, have regard to the recommendations of the OECD report and consider the impact of these recommendations on our progress. The new Government action plan can then be tailored accordingly in setting out the blueprint for even greater successes. A new knowledge society action plan to replace New Connections, which remains the current action plan until a successor plan is approved by Government, will also reflect the relevant conclusions and recommendations of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

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