Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Our national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital, was published in February 2022 and reflects Ireland’s ambition to remain a digital leader at the heart of European and global digital developments. Our National Digital Strategy sets out a roadmap to drive and enable the digital transition across Enterprise; Infrastructure; Skills; and Public Services, in line with the EU’s Digital Decade. It includes targets and related workstreams and deliverables across each dimension, and it complements work towards achieving Ireland’s climate objectives.

The general objectives of the strategy are monitored and assessed at national level. As it is a strategy involving a large number of Government Departments, implementation of it is driven via cross-government coordination structures, reporting to the Cabinet Committee on the Economy and Investment via a Senior Officials Group on Digital Issues. A first Progress Report on the Framework was published in December 2022.

The National Digital Roadmap forms part of the National Digital Strategy and includes targets and related workstreams and deliverables across each dimension to progress the digitalisation of our enterprise base, and public services, supported and enabled by digital infrastructure and digital skills. Our Roadmap was sent to the Commission earlier this week.

We remain mindful of Ireland’s important role in enforcing digital regulation, and Harnessing Digital re-enforces our commitment to a modern, cohesive, well-resourced regulatory framework to effectively oversee and enforce digital regulations.

Recent progress in this regard includes the Government’s decision to designate the new Coimisiún na Meán as Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator, under the Digital Services Act, and the recent appointment of a Digital Services Commissioner. The Digital Services Bill, which will give effect to that decision, is being advanced and work is ongoing to ensure our Digital Services Coordinator is in place, and operating effectively as quickly as possible.

Stakeholder engagement informed the development of the Strategy and remains a key element in driving its delivery. This includes regular engagement between the Senior Officials Group on Digital Issues and the Digital Regulators Group, and with industry stakeholders.

Sectoral strategies have been developed to align with Harnessing Digital, and have similarly involved stakeholder consultation and engagement. This includes the recent National Connectivity Strategy; a Mid-Term Review of our National Cyber Security Strategy; a new Digital Inclusion Roadmap – Digital for Good; a National AI Strategy, AI – Here for Good; Connecting Government 2030:A Digital and ICT Strategy for Ireland’s Public Service; a Digital Strategy for Schools; and Adult Literacy for Life Strategy.

In this context, the European Commission recently published the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) for 2023, which showed continued progress across our digital agenda, building on and reflecting the significant progress achieved to date under Harnessing Digital.

While acknowledging our positive performance as a digital leader in Europe, including in the 2023 DESI results, the Government remains focused on continuing to drive further progress across all aspects of our digital agenda, to ensure we deliver on both our national, and EU-level targets, under the Digital Decade 2030 programme.