Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)

It would be great if the public had an opportunity to report, on-line, illegal dumping, to obtain statistics about their neighbourhood or to find out about school term dates. These basic facilities exist in other countries. It is important we keep up with international best practice.

The OECD report published earlier this week highlighted the problems in respect of e-Government. It stated that from a wider perspective there is concern that Ireland is falling behind in international benchmarks of on-line service provision. The report makes it clear that we are not keeping up with international best practice and need a new approach to the use of technology.

I am glad the Government has seen the sense of our recommendations. We want an aggressive roll-out of broadband to coincide with this new e-Government strategy. Fine Gael has been to the fore in driving forward both of these issues and will continue to push them. High speed broadband has become essential in life, education and business and is no longer an extravagance. As modernisation continues to sweep the country, it is imperative our infrastructure is up to speed in this regard.

I hope the e-Government initiative will be more successful than the better local government initiative. Most of us have experienced what happens when one rings a Department or local authority, namely, one is given the option of pressing buttons 1, 2 or 3 following which one hears a message indicating the mailbox is full, the person required is on annual leave or asking that a message be left and the person will return the call. All of this is to the strains of "Have I told you lately that I love you?" It is so frustrating but we hope when one uses e-Government that the least one will get is some information.

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