Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

We are asking for an honest assessment of the performance of two e-Government strategies to date. I am glad we learned something new today, which is that the Government plans to introduce a new strategy in July of this year. However, the current strategy, which Deputy Kitt has said is still current, ended in 2005 and is already out of date.

I ask the Minister of State to at least acknowledge some of the significant failures that have been outlined in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report. We have spent €0.5 billion of taxpayers' money on these projects. A total of 161 projects were due for completion, but only 74 were delivered. Is that acceptable to the Government? Twenty-three projects were abandoned. Is that acceptable to the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, which is the Department with responsibility for co-ordinating the e-Government effort? Some 44 projects have only been partially implemented and 20 have been described as "status unknown". Does that demonstrate leadership on e-Government? The Minister of State quoted the Comptroller and Auditor General a number of times in his reply. However, his report states:

The momentum towards developing e-Government that was evident in the early years of the decade appears to have faded somewhat. This is evident in the absence of a formal e-Government strategy since the beginning of 2006.

Is that good enough for the Minister of State?

The Minister of State argued that we compare favourably with other countries in the European Union and elsewhere but that is not true. We are below the average in terms of performance, and falling. Our graph is stagnant, while the graphs of other countries are improving. The European Commission pointed out last year that Ireland is ranked No.17 out of 27 member states and No.11 out of the original EU 15. The Economist intelligence unit placed us at No. 21 out of 69 countries. We are not performing well. We need a new impetus, energy and leadership from the Government in this area. It is not good enough to say that if Deputies have questions regarding failed projects, they should address them to the relevant Ministers. It is the Taoiseach's Department that has the information society policy unit at its disposal. It is surely the body that must drive and co-ordinate e-Government and its future direction.

I ask the Minister of State to outline who is putting the new e-Government strategy in place, who is responsible for it and the proposed timescale and cost of the strategy.

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