The Eircom-sponsored event, called the "Innovation Through Technology Awards," was run by Inside Government magazine, a publication that caters to civil servants and public sector employees. The event marked the first year of awards and included a keynote address from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and closing remarks from Eircom CEO Dr. Philip Nolan. Indeed, the participation of the two powerful men is reflective of the seriousness with which e-government is now taken in Ireland, with local and national agencies striving -- some more successfully than others -- to create more efficient government services. A key theme of all the speeches on the evening, including the Taoiseach's, was the importance of technology and technological innovation as a cost-saving tool in the public sector.
This theme was also reiterated in the award categories, all of which were centred on innovative services; no awards were presented in a "best website" category.
The top award winner on the night, the winner of the "Innovator of the Year" award, was Kerry County Council, for its Requests for Quotations (RFQ) system to allow the local authority to trade electronically with suppliers. The judges also noted that the award was in recognition of the "sheer number of projects underway" within Kerry County Council, and for the culture of innovation that had been spawned there.
In the "Government to Government Category," the Department of Social & Family Affairs won top honours for its Integrating and eEnabling Services project. The service is a combination of five smaller projects, making it possible to register a child's birth, assign a Public Service Identity Number and set up child benefit all at the same time.
In the "Government to Citizen" category, the Department of Environment & Local Government won for its highly acclaimed Motor Tax Online Project, which over the past few months has been held up on several occasions as a kind of poster-child for citizen-centric e-government services. Similarly, in the "Government to Business" category, the Department of Agriculture & Food took home the top award for its Livestock Inspectors Project, another highly-acclaimed effort, which allows livestock inspectors to file reports using mobile phones.
In the "Within the Organisation" Category, the Revenue Commissioners won with its Icarus Customs Project, a web-based paperless system used for customs clearance applications. The award is yet another for Revenue, which now has a long-standing reputation for e-government leadership in Ireland and across Europe. In the "Partnership" category, the Department of Foreign Affairs won for its www.eu2004.ie website, which was set up ahead of the Irish Presidency of the EU. The website interfaced with countless others and its 2 million words of content were translated into several other European languages.
Other bodies to receive notable mention at the ceremony in the Radisson St. Helens Hotel, the venue for the event, were the Dublin Dental School & Hospital and the South Dublin County Council, which were shortlisted in multiple categories.
Quelle: ElectricNews, 28.01.2005
