So says the annual report from Capgemini conducted on behalf of the European Commission, which placed Ireland fourth in Europe in terms of online sophistication of e-government services with a score of 84 percent. This score tied with the UK but was five points behind the leader, Sweden. Last year Ireland had a score of 86 percent, making it joint second with Denmark, and in 2001 Ireland topped the list with 68 percent. Though still a top performer in the sophistication arena, Ireland was one of only two countries to show a decline in comparison with the previous year. Other countries have made impressive advances in the past twelve months. The UK, for example, jumped from 71 percent in 2003 to 86 percent for 2004. Norway too is gaining on Ireland, improving from 75 percent in 2003 to 82 percent in the current survey.
In the three years between 2001 and 2004 sophistication of public services in Ireland has grown by an average of 15 percentage points, making it the country with the second slowest growth rate, the lowest being Switzerland at 11 percentage points. Austria and Belgium stand out as the top growers of online sophistication, with both achieving growth of over 40 percentage points in the past three years.
In terms of availability of online public services, Ireland is in lowly 11th position with just 50 percent, a long way off the leader Sweden with 74 percent. In this section too, Ireland has lost ground in the past year falling from fifth in 2003 with 56 percent. Denmark has experienced a more pronounced fall from grace in terms of online availability -- it ranked first in 2003 with 74 percent but slipped to fifth with 58 percent in the 2004 survey. Sweden, Austria, Finland and the UK all picked up ground in this area with growth of 7, 4, 6 and 9 percentage points respectively.
"Ireland is still performing well, we are fourth in terms of online sophistication as we continue to make more information available online, primarily through the increased provision of downloadable forms," said Nick Forbes, managing director of Capgemini in Ireland. "Yet as the maturity of e-government grows, we have not seen the same level of drive and commitment within Ireland to make services fully available online?"
Looking at specific online e-government services, Ireland scored third in car registration, enrolment in higher education and attaining environment-related permits online. The Republic scored fourth in attaining a driver's licence online and for social security benefits such as child allowances. However Ireland is performing less well in health-related services and also public libraries where it ranked 23rd and 16th respectively.
The report, which also assessed the e-government services of the 10 new Member States, concluded that their scores were satisfactory, corresponding, on average, with the level where the original 18 countries were two years ago.
The report, which covered the 25 EU member countries plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, broke government services into four main categories: Income-generating: services such as taxes and social contributions; Registration services such as births, deaths or marriages; Returns, or services provided in return for taxes such as public libraries; and permits and licences, for activities like home construction or business registration.
Autor: Deirdre McArdle
Quelle: ElectricNews, 08.03.2005
