Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As Minister of State with responsibility for public procurement and eGovernment, I am very pleased to introduce the 2020 Estimates for the Votes for the Office of Government Procurement and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO.

The Vote for the OGCIO, Vote 43, is new and has only been established this year. As Minister of State with responsibility for eGovernment, I am pleased to lead the continued digital transformation across government and the implementation of associated strategies through the OGCIO. It is important that the State matches the productivity gains which 21st century technology is bringing to industry. As a result, it is essential to have a dedicated Minister and a public body to champion, innovate with and harness automation and technology. This can enable public service employees to give their best, provide greater value for money for the taxpayer and improve services for the citizen. The establishment of the Vote for the OGCIO will enable an even wider adoption of its full range of build-to-share services, which in turn will drive digital transformation in government at a faster pace by freeing up Departments and bodies to focus on transformation initiatives rather than simply keeping the lights on.

Building on our recent experiences of digitally enabled large-scale remote working, there is much we can learn to introduce more long-term improvements in how we work throughout the Civil Service and the public service and how we serve our stakeholders. The impact of the OGCIO Vote will be seen on two fronts. It will enable more bodies to avail of the OGCIO's common ICT services and it will provide increased scope for the OGCIO to drive the Government's digital agenda through further strategic investment, thus ensuring digital transformation is a high priority across all sectors of Government.

In the current situation, it is even more critical that the public service continues to develop digital services that are consistently easy and convenient to use. In recent months we have seen the value of our public service portal in providing the single source for information for citizens about the pandemic itself and the Government response. Use of the gov.ie platform has increased by 760% from 2019. The key to progress in providing digital public services is having people with the right skills in the right roles to develop the services. We have been working with Civil Service HR departments to progress a range of initiatives relating to ICT professionalisation in the Civil Service. I am very pleased with the progress of our pilot. An apprentice ICT specialist programme has been designed and more than 30 apprentices have already been placed with 11 Departments and offices. I look forward to seeing our apprentices qualify and join the Civil Service ICT cohort in the coming year. I am also looking into a similar programme for retraining people whose jobs have been affected by the pandemic and the related growth in digitisation and automation.

I see great potential for the digital technology sector to help to drive recovery through the establishment of a govtech ecosystem, as it is called, which could further accelerate digital government while also stimulating our indigenous SME start-up sector. The recent success of the Covid-19 contact tracing app, which was developed by an Irish company and is now being replicated across the world, is evidence of what can be achieved when we all work together.

I will turn now to my responsibilities for public procurement. The Office of Government Procurement, which is covered in Vote 39, has played an important role in recent months in supporting the national response to Covid-19. This has included direct procurement support to the HSE and other public bodies engaged in the delivery of front-line services to the public. The office has issued a number of important policy information notes to public bodies providing guidance on managing the procurement implications of Covid-19. The office has ongoing responsibilities as the central purchasing body for eight categories of commonly purchased goods and services, leading the ongoing reform programme for public procurement, setting national policy in regard to public procurement, supporting the professionalisation of the practice of public procurement and managing the national procurement platform, eTenders.

The programme for Government sets out a number of ambitious policy objectives in the areas of environmental and social considerations through public procurement while also delivering value for money and supporting the continued participation of small and medium enterprises in this important business opportunity. I look forward to working with the Office of Government Procurement to build on its ongoing work in these areas. I am happy to present the 2020 Revised Estimates for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer and the Office of Government Procurement, approval of which will allow them to continue to meet their responsibilities and deliver essential services. I look forward to the debate on these proposals and I am happy to answer any questions that arise.

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