The eGovernment strategy, which covers 2012 to 2015, encourages greater sharing of data between Government public bodies, electronic delivery of services where appropriate and an increased level of automation to free-up staff currently engaged in front-line work.
The plan also envisages the use of emerging technologies to deliver these services across a range of digital platforms, including mobile apps.
Getting rid of IT vendor lock-in is the main reason for Limerick to move to open source, the head of the city's IT department, Mihai Bilauca, explained on 11 November 2011 at a conference in Zaragoza, Spain. The city in 2009 was confronted with "very high" costs for renewing the licences for the proprietary office and email applications that it was using at that time.
Read more: IE: Limerick City Council increasingly turning to open source
"There has been no progress on a Government CIO and this is unlikely to change," Rabbitte said today during a Q&A at the launch of a joint Government/EMC cloud innovation centre that will be open to SMEs and the public sector to test new applications.
The idea of a Government CIO was first mooted in 2009 by the then Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
Shared services are centralised activities within a multi-site global corporation. Ireland is already ranked number three in the world in terms of the number of shared service centres (SSCs) operating in a single country with over 140 centres operating here.
The sector currently employs over 35,000 people in foreign-owned companies supported by IDA Ireland, and a growing base of indigenous activity supported by Enterprise Ireland with 4,000 jobs.
Read more: IE: Huge jobs growth potential in shared services -- ACCA
It is envisaged the microchipped card will eventually be used by a range of public bodies to identify an individual at points of service and to provide “egovernment” or online services.
It is also envisaged that areas of the public service may use the information on the card to check their information matches that held by other bodies.
Read more: IE: Public services cards to be distributed widely in 2012