Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

A good public servant with some experience would do that on his or her own. As the Taoiseach is aware, such expertise exists within the public service.

Last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General issued a damning report on the Government's strategy for what it calls e-Government. He described the target of having all public services capable of being delivered on-line by 2006 as being clearly unrealistic and the roll-out as being average. Despite the existence of a Government subcommittee on e-Government, no strategy has been in place since 2006 and Ireland's position has fallen from first in 2001 to seventeenth in 2007. While a total of €420 million was spent, which was 20% over budget, it yielded only half the on-line services that were set out. Of the 141 flagship projects to provide Government services, 23 were abandoned and a further 44 were only partially implemented by mid-2006. Moreover, only half the projects were fully operational six months after the deadline had passed. When will the Government produce an updated and credible strategy for the delivery of e-Government and when will such a strategy be published?

Second, this is an area in which the Government set out to increase competitiveness. Does the Taoiseach accept that the failure in his Department in this respect goes to the heart of what has been debated in this House, namely, the lack of capacity to be competitive on the part of the Government? My understanding is that the e-Government programme was approved by the Department of the Taoiseach and was run by an assistant secretary from that Department. Given the litany of failures outlined by the Comptroller and Auditor General, was a bonus paid to that section of the Department for this work? The last report of the committee for performance awards relates to 2006, at which time all 205 people who were eligible for bonuses received them. As the person who is doing it his way and is driving this on, is the Taoiseach satisfied with the findings of this report on delivery? Is the Taoiseach satisfied that Ireland has slipped from first position to seventeenth? Is he satisfied with the comments made by the Comptroller and Auditor General? When does he propose to have someone take charge of this issue, publish an updated credible strategy for e-Government and deliver it in the interest of efficiency, to which he referred in respect of the previous question?

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