Ireland just passed a new eGovernment strategy (2017-2020) recognizing the government’s commitment to be open, flexible and collaborative with citizens and businesses, using digitalization and technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

The Irish government is committing to the once-only principle stating that they will strive to ensure that citizens and businesses only need to supply the same information once. This data will then be internally re-used, in due respect of data protection rules, so that no additional burden falls on citizens and businesses.

Patrick O’Donovan, Minister of State for Public Procurement, Open Government and eGovernment states:

“The new eGovernment Strategy sets out our plans to be a leader in the provision of digital government services. We have made substantial progress over the last few years and want to build upon that. The expectations of our people are very clear in terms of more convenient, intuitive and joined-up digital services; delivering on these expectations will be one of my key priorities going forward.”

Ireland’s eGovernment efforts will reduce the administrative burden for citizens by implementing the once-only principle. Furthermore, the strategy overall aligns with the EU eGovernment Action Plan and strengthens public administration modernization efforts. Within that effort, the Irish government wants to develop a central gateway for eGovernment services, offering an easy way to access services from across the country's public administrations.

For more information: 

• Ireland's eGovernment Strategy 2017-2020 (published July 27th, 2017) 
• Ireland's eGovernment Website