Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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37. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the recently announced consultation process in respect of the national digital strategy. [46732/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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A new overarching National Digital Strategy is currently in development. The Strategy will help Ireland to maximise the economic and societal benefits from ongoing digitalisation and its transformative effects.

In 2013, Ireland’s previous National Digital Strategy was launched, and focused on Doing more with Digital. Five years on, the Government is seeking to develop a new National Digital Strategy to take full advantage of the evolving opportunities of digital transformation, and deal with the many challenges thrown up by the swift pace of technological advancement.

The Strategy is being led as a shared effort by the Department of the Taoiseach; Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation; and the Office of the Chief Information Officer in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, reflecting the spread of areas it will cover.

An Interdepartmental Group, which includes representatives from all Departments, is assisting the development of the Strategy ensuring a comprehensive whole-of-Government approach.

As committed to in the Action Plan for Jobs, a Framework for Developing the new National Digital Strategy has been completed, which went to Government in July, and reflects preliminary stakeholder consultations with civic society, enterprise representatives, industry, education providers and academia.

A public consultation, to allow citizens to feed in and influence the development of the Strategy, is currently underway and will run for a month until Friday, November 23^rd. Citizens can submit their views online, by email or by post.

The public’s submissions will help us carve out the issues that matter to the people of Ireland, and create a strong new National Digital Strategy based on the real concerns, needs and ambitions of the country.

In parallel with the public consultation, consultation with stakeholders and sectoral specialists is taking place, to further inform the development of the Strategy.

The final Strategy will map out how we can positively embrace digital advances and provide for a national narrative to understand the impacts of digital technology on Ireland.