Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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282. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to outline the key factors referenced in Ireland's recent ranking among world leaders in digital Government and open data; the specific areas of public service performance that contributed to this assessment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39798/26]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for the question. I was very pleased to note Ireland’s recent international rankings in digital government and open data. These reflect sustained investment and reform to build a modern, digitally-enabled and data-driven public service. This is underpinned by whole-of-Government coordination and a focus on delivering better outcomes for our people as outlined in the Better Public Services transformation strategy led by my Department.

The OECD’s 2025 Digital Government Index ranked Ireland 7th out of 36 countries. The Index assesses the policy and governance foundations that enable coherent, human-centred digital transformation across six dimensions: Digital by design, Data-driven public sector, Government as a platform, Open by default, User-driven and Proactiveness.

Ireland performed strongly across each of these areas, with particular strengths noted in designing services “digital by design”, building shared platforms and tools that can be reused across the public service (“government as a platform”).

These results reflect long-term investment in shared digital capability in the public service, led by my Department, including common building blocks and stronger data governance and interoperability—foundations that will support consistent service standards, reduce duplication, and enable more seamless services across organisations.

Ireland also ranks well for Open Data.

In the EU’s 2025 Open Data Maturity assessment, Ireland ranked 5th overall (4th among EU Member States) with a score of 96%. The EU assessment measures performance across four dimensions - covering the strength of national open data frameworks and governance, the capability and sustainability of our national open data portal, metadata/standards and data quality, and the measurement and demonstration of reuse and impact.

Ireland has been recognised for practical supports that help public bodies publish and improve datasets, the use of shared national platforms and catalogues and work to reduce barriers for local organisations to publish high-quality open data.

On the OECD front, Ireland ranked 11th in the OECD OURdata Index, which examines open government data policy across data availability, data accessibility and government support for data reuse.

Taken together, these rankings reflect the progress made by Government in digital Government and open data policy and infrastructure and position’s Ireland strongly to leverage government data for transparency, innovation and supporting emerging technologies such as AI for public good, and to grow the economy.

I would like to assure the Deputy that I will continue to drive digital transformation of public services as I set out last year in the Digital Public Services Plan 2030. And indeed in line with the ambitions set by Government in the recent national digital and AI strategy, Digital Ireland, which sets out how Government will harness digital and AI opportunities for competitiveness and continued economic growth; to enhance our digital public services; and to empower our people to thrive in a digital society.