Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1011. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the detail of each local authority that has and has not completed a local digital strategy in tabular form. [54286/18]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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My Department recognises the value of each Local Authority having a local digital strategy in place in order to fully benefit from the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan. To this end, my Department has provided information and guidance to each Local Authority to develop local digital strategies, and has facilitated the provision of expert consultancy to assist with strategy development.

Digital Readiness Assessments, which act as a baseline against which each Local Authority can assess their digital maturity, have been completed for each Local Authority. Dedicated workshops for information sharing and strategy development were facilitated in the second quarter of 2018, with Guidelines for Strategy Development issued to Local Authorities in the third quarter of the year.

Notwithstanding the assistance provided by my Department, the development and publication of local digital strategies is a matter for each Local Authority.

However, from my Department's engagement with the Local Authorities, I understand that most, if not all, Local Authorities are expected to publish local digital strategies in the near future. Some have already done so. For example, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary County Councils have all published local digital strategies in the past year. In addition, Donegal County Council has published a dedicated Digital Action Plan and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Fingal, Dublin City and South Dublin County Councils are active participants of the Smart Dublin Strategy.

My officials will continue to provide guidance and support to Local Authorities in 2019 in order to facilitate the development of local digital strategies.