Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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168. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the unit within his Department that is responsible for implementing the eGovernment strategy 2017 to 2020. [48749/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), part of my Department, has the overarching brief to strategically leverage ICT within the Public Service to improve outcomes for citizens and businesses. As part of this brief, the OGCIO works with other Departments and the EU to produce policies, strategies and systems that provide cross-cutting improvements to how public administration is carried out via the use of ICT. As an example, the OGCIO played the primary administrative role in formulating the Public Service ICT strategy, which Government published in January 2015. Regarding the strategy your question refers to, the OGCIO also had the primary role in formulating the eGovernment Strategy 2017 to 2020. 

In regards to the implementation of Public Service-wide ICT strategies, it should be noted that each Department is individually responsible and accountable for how it uses ICT in the carrying out of its administrative functions, although the OGCIO does have oversight of the more strategic projects. The eGovernment Strategy sets out a broad set of visioning principles that generally fall to all Departments to implement and adhere to. The Strategy sets out a number of complementary actions, which fall to different, or multiple, Departments to carry forward. For example, the sections regarding eHealth, eID, backend reform, business and location identifiers, the development of ICT skills and capacity, etc., rest with different implementing Departments. To this end, the eGovernment Strategy sets out a common vision, where its implementation is collectively and individually progressed as appropriate.