Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Any digital strategy that is truly national must envisage access to high-speed broadband for every citizen wherever he or she lives. This is axiomatic. Clearly, there is a real difficulty for the vindication of true equality and there is a real danger of a digital divide. How does the Taoiseach propose to address this issue?

There is another issue, which is that one in six adults in this country is functionally illiterate. This will impact on people's ability to use new digital technologies. Before they even get into digital capacity being illiterate is an enormous impediment to accessing services online.

An enormous amount of work on eGovernment was done and I am glad to see the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is present. We looked at best practice in countries such as the Republic of Korea, where an enormous number of public services are accessible very readily, with a unique identifier for each citizen so they do not have to put in endless data each time they contact a local or national Government office or agency. Is it envisaged that we are making progress on facilitating ready access to all Government services online?

See this speech in context