Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the new e-Government project that was due to be launched in July 2008 following agreement with Opposition parties after an agreed Private Members' motion; the reason such a delay has occurred; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37194/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The motion referred to by the Deputy was taken on 30 April last. At that time responsibility for the Knowledge Society and eGovernment was with the Department of the Taoiseach. In May, upon his appointment, the Taoiseach announced that he was assigning responsibility for eGovernment to the Department of Finance and for the Knowledge Society to my Department.

In developing a Knowledge Society Strategy I decided to adopt a new approach involving a whole-of-Government effort across a number of sectors. My Department is in the process of developing a new Knowledge Society Strategy and details of the approach and scope of the initiative are currently under discussion with relevant Government Departments. I intend to have a comprehensive stakeholder consultation on the approach. The aim is to define a set of economic and social actions, which will make a significant impact on accelerating Ireland as a Knowledge Economy.