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Minister of State Ossian Smyth TD (right) with Paul Quinn, Chief Procurement Officer, Office of Government Procurement.
As the Government prepares the successor to the eGovernment Strategy 2017–2020, Ciarán Galway speaks with Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD.
eGovernment, as defined by the OECD, is “the use of information and communications technologies, and particularly the internet, to achieve better government”. In other words, eGovernment is less about the technology and more about making the delivery of public services more efficient, user-orientated and transparent.
“The public, at this stage, expect that the services that they receive from the Government will be as good and as convenient as the services that they obtain commercially,” Minister Smyth says, adding: “This process has been accelerated by the pandemic and, by necessity, many people have been using online services who would otherwise not have done so.”
These services are being developed to meet citizen expectations through the use of familiar controls and operations. For example, while motor tax renewal was available online via basic HTML, now this interface is moving towards video and webchat. “It is a more up-todate and normalised way of providing a service that meets expectations. Similarly, the Covid Tracker App looks like any commercial app. It’s intuitive and looks similar to and is as good as any commercial application,” Smyth indicates.
Overall, the digital function of government is split across five departments:
• the Digital Single Market is the responsibility of Minister of State for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Trade Promotion, Robert Troy TD;
• cybersecurity and communications networks are the responsibility of Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD;
• the regulation of social media is the responsibility of Minister for Tourism,
Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and
Media, Catherine Martin TD;
• a coordinating digital government function is the responsibility of the Department of the Taoiseach; and
• eGovernment is the responsibility of
Minister of State with responsibility for
Public Procurement and eGovernment, Ossian Smyth TD, within the Department of Public
Expenditure and Reform.
Appointed to his current portfolio in July 2020, Ossian Smyth is a computer science graduate and was first elected to
the Dáil in February 2020. In his role as Minister of State, he is responsible for ICT policy and “ensuring that everything is in line to facilitate the delivery of digital services to the public”.
“My specific area [of responsibility] is the online delivery of government services to the public, but also it is about ensuring that the public sector is doing everything online internally,” he explains. Smyth is also responsible for open data. “The idea is clear now that the data feeds into the policy. You have that cyclic input and there is public demand for it.”
MyGovID
Identifying the MyGovID e-ID system as the single most important component of his work, Smyth outlines: “It is very important that the Government can digitally authenticate the public. For example, if you consider healthcare and Covid management, it requires that you keep track of who has had a vaccine, which dose they have had, and that you can locate them for the second dose. This requires a common identity framework. Really, my focus is going to be on extending the e-ID system, making it stronger and offering more services online.”
MyGovID is a joint initiative, undertaken by Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Social Protection, the rationale of which is to provide Irish citizens with a safe and secure single site to access digital public services. It is intended to establish a more joined up approach to government with sharing between public bodies. In February 2021, the initiative reached a significant milestone of 1,000,000 verified MyGovID accounts and over 2,500,000 in total (including basic MyGovID accounts).
Asserting the importance of ensuring compliance with the EU’s standard for interoperability of national ID systems, the Minister also recognises the requirement for MyGovID to be fully legal and ethically acceptable to the public. “It is absolutely critical that the public understands that what we are doing is right, proportionate and that we are delivering the services that they want. People want their privacy respected, but they also want convenience.
“The very basic proposition to people is, ‘do you want to have to use a different username and password for every part of the Government when you go to access a service?’ The clear message we have had from the public is no. People want to have one account which can be used to get a tax refund or apply for a welfare payment. I am working on that,” he states.
Re-emphasising the catalytic impact of the Covid crisis, Smyth notes: “Many people went online during the pandemic. We doubled the number of people who have MyGovID accounts over the course of a year, which is a big deal, and we’re going to go further still.”
Limited digital services
However, the eGovernment Minister is conscious that while Ireland has a significant proportion of the population signed up to MyGovID accounts, it is lagging in the range of public services which are being delivered digitally.
“I will be ensuring that a much broader range of services is made available. I would say very clearly to anyone in the public sector who is developing a new service aimed at the public and requires the public log in that it should be using MyGovID as the authentication system. You should not be setting up a system for 500,000 Irish people that tells them to choose a new username and password when they already have one that works on our existing system. I want to see MyGovID by default,” he insists.
Open Data
Open Data is a major component of the Public Service ICT Strategy and wider public service reform. As per the sixth EU Open Data Maturity Report published in December 2020, Ireland continues to be ranked among the Open Data ‘trend setters’. Ranked fourth in Europe (behind Denmark, Spain and France), Ireland scored 94 per cent across the four metrics: policy; impact; portal; and quality.
Acknowledging this, the eGovernment Minister indicates that “there is more to do” and highlights the “strains and challenges were shown up during the pandemic”. As an example, he points to the challenge of acquiring accurate data from the General Register Office, within the Department of Social Protection, relating to the number Covid-related deaths. “In Ireland, a death can be registered within three months, which is not ideal when attempting to record how many people died last week,” Smyth says, adding: “The policy question is: ‘Are things getting worse or are they getting better? Did our policy change work?’ If you’re only getting data as vital and basic as whether someone is alive or not, three months after their death, you have clearly got a problem.”
The Minister is cognisant of the fundamental importance of datainformed government policy decisions in securing public support. “From that perspective, one of the things that is changing is that when a government department is producing data, it should be open by default and the department should be considering how its dashboard should be presented to the public. If you produce open data that is available for people to understand, you can then get buy-in from the public for the policy decisions that are based on that data.”
Public Service Data Catalogue
Discussing the impact of the Public Service Data Catalogue as a component of Public Service Data Strategy 20192023, the eGovernment Minister acknowledges the contribution of local government and describes its rationale as being to facilitate greater transparency for citizens in relation to public service data, as well as a more joined-up and efficient public service.
Launched in February 2021, the Public Service Data Catalogue provides descriptive information on over 1,100 datasets across close to 100 public bodies, including their purpose and whether they contain personal or sensitive data.
“One of the frequent criticisms of all governments is that they are not joinedup. This is apparent when two departments collaborate on a project; they often find that they are using a different set of identifiers for datasets which identify the same objects.
“Having the Public Sector Data Catalogue is vital and fits in with the requirements of the new EU Open Data Directive which provides that a collection of datasets must be published freely by every government in the EU.”
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Berlin Declaration
A successor to the 2017 Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment, the Berlin Declaration on Digital Society and Valuebased Digital Government was signed by EU member states in December 2020. The Berlin Declaration is intended to increase digital participation and inclusion by ensuring that digital transformation in the public sector is informed by a series of agreed principles and associated policy actions.
These principles are:
• validity and respect of fundamental rights and democratic values;
• social participation and digital inclusion;
• empowerment and digital literacy;
• trust and security in digital government interactions;
• digital sovereignty and interoperability;
• human-centred systems and innovative technologies in the public sector; and
• a resilient and sustainable digital society.
Upon signing the agreement, Smyth remarked: “It is important that we enable all of our people to engage digitally with public and other services and ensure that no one who wants to participate is left behind.
“During the pandemic, a lot of people were forced to try something for the first time, such as making a video call to an elderly relative or something similar. That option is available to a lot of people. However, we are never going to stop people from picking up their pension in a post office. You can provide someone with a bank card, but they may still prefer to pick it up in cash. There is no policy change on that. We have to be inclusive, and we have to ensure that people are not left behind.”
Climate agenda
In particular, the eGovernment Minister and Green Party TD welcomed the Berlin Declaration’s inclusion of the ambition that European digital transformation must closely align with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal.
The Declaration states: “The digital transformation in Europe needs to be closely aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement as well as the goals of the European Green Deal. With reference to the current work on Council Conclusions on Digitalisation for the Benefit of the Environment, we need to ensure that a sustainable digital transformation serves our citizens and businesses on an individual level as well as our society as a whole, while at the same time safeguarding the preservation of our natural foundations of life.”
Similarly, the EU’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan contains three priority areas for development across the EU in the context of a massive investment led post-pandemic recovery. Those three areas are: green transition; digital transition; and retraining.
“There is a paradox with the green recovery because if you are building lots of windfarms and you are investing in transition to electric vehicles and retrofitted homes. That is a lot of economic activity and there are a lot of emissions associated with that.
“Many of the new technologies require training and much of that training will now take place online. That connects digitalisation and the green recovery. For example, as an engineer, you can log into a wind turbine to service it. Anything in the green sphere requires a lot of ICT, information dissemination, and monitoring and sensing technology,” Smyth maintains.
Vision
Concluding, Minister Smyth outlines his ambition for eGovernment in Ireland, indicating that citizens should be enabled to “readily and rapidly access their government services with very little hassle”. Highlighting the work undertaken by the Passport Service to deliver Passport Online as archetypal, the Minister re-emphasises the importance of public trust “when citizens supply information, that the Government is not using that information for purposes other than those intended”.
Overall, he intends to deliver: “A trustworthy, reliable, convenient and broad system that is as good as any other country in Europe and that saves people time and money, while being efficient for the State to run. Simultaneously, providing that no one is left behind, whether culturally or physically incapable of obtaining their services online, there will always be a human option if they need it. That’s the vision for the future.”
Public sector 20 per cent remote working target
The Government has signalled its intention to ensure remote working is a permanent feature in the Irish workforce post-pandemic, including outlining plans to mandate for 20 per cent of public sector employment to work remotely.
In January 2021, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD, published Ireland’s first National Remote Work Strategy, with the aim of making remote working a permanent option for life after the pandemic.
The strategy acknowledges that the pandemic has accelerated a practice which “might have taken decades had it been planned” and points to economic, spatial, environmental, cultural, and societal change which could be brought about as a result of increased remote working.
The strategy acknowledges demand for remote work beyond that necessitated by the pandemic. NUI Galway research recorded an increase in the desire for remote working opportunities over the period of the pandemic and in October 2020 research found that 94 per cent of participants would like to work remotely post-pandemic.
One of the main actions of the strategy is to mandate for home and remote working to be the norm for 20 per cent of public sector employment. The action is one of many underpinning conditions within the Government’s three pillar approach to increased remote working, namely: the creation of a conducive environment; developing and leveraging remote work infrastructure; and building a remote work policy and guidance framework.
Other key actions included in the strategy relate to: • reviewing the treatment of remote working for the purposes of tax and expenditure in the next budget;
• mapping and investing in a network of remote working hubs across
Ireland;
• legislating for the right to request remote working;
• developing a code of practice for the right to disconnect; and
• accelerating the provision of highspeed broadband to all parts of
Ireland.
The key actions are designed to not only harness the potential of increased remote working but also to mitigate against some of the recognised downsides that the practice could bring.
The 2016 census recorded an 11 per cent increase in the number of people commuting and a rise of 8 per cent in the number of people commuting by car. Research previously commissioned by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment estimated that one individual’s commute time to Dublin for work had an estimated economic cost of around 4,000. The strategy recognises the potential for increased remote working to aid the Government’s ambitions to reduce transport carbon emissions.
Another potential advantage is increased labour market participation, included but not limited to workers with disabilities or older workers, while the strategy highlights benefits associated with improved work/life balance and childcare flexibility for parents.
One of the most recognised potential benefits is accommodation flexibility, relieving some of the pressures in cities, where demand has driven up rent and house prices. NUI Galway research indicates that 7 per cent of people it talked to had already relocated as a result of their experiences of remote working during the pandemic and a further 40 per cent indicated they would or may consider a move.
However, the strategy also recognises that an increase in remote working is not without its challenges. The potential for increased isolation, loneliness and stress is a significant concern in relation to remote workers, as is employer feedback that suggests remote working could lead to an innovation deficit due to less collaboration. There is a recognition that less commuting could have adverse impacts to businesses and local economies designed to complement traditional commuter patterns, while reduced visibility could have negative impacts on career progression ambitions and gender equality in the workplace.
Launching the strategy, Varadkar said: “The requirement to work from home where possible, for reasons of public health, has demonstrated how viable home, remote and blended working can be. Post-pandemic, I want remote working to be part of a whole new world of work and this new government strategy sets out how we will enable it.”
The cloud is transforming public services: Ireland is poised to lead by example
The way public services are being delivered, all over the world, is rapidly changing, writes Mark Finlay, Head of Public Sector Ireland at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
As people make greater use of the internet and smart devices, they want governments to provide better digital services. Covid-19 has only served to accelerate this trend, with a greater expectation than ever that State bodies should be able to operate remotely and at speed. Ireland is no different. The vast majority of Irish people are digitally connected, technologically savvy, and fully comfortable in online environments. The country’s well-earned status as a global technology hub is also feeding the growing appetite for innovation in the delivery of public services.
This has not been lost on the Irish Government, who have made the better use of new technologies a headline objective. Key official texts, including the 2017 eGovernment Strategy, Our Public Service 2020 and the current Programme for Government, all stress the need to accelerate the digital delivery of services. The recent new innovation strategy, Making Innovation Real, recognises too that new digital solutions must be provided to meet both the expectations and needs of the public.
Cloud computing is key to this burgeoning national and global digital transformation. That’s because the flexibility it provides is fundamental to the responsive and nimble services that people now expect from Government. As the cloud allows for the on-demand delivery of dynamic IT resources over the internet, State bodies using it no longer have to worry about managing cumbersome and expensive data centres. Instead, they simply access the digital tools they require on an asneeded basis, meaning they can focus on services and outcomes rather than the hardware underpinning them. It is similar, in effect, to flipping a switch in your home to turn on the lights. You don’t have to wrestle with the machinery or infrastructure that generates the electricity, much like users of cloud computing no longer need to expend time, money, or resources on server rooms and hardware.
So just why is the cloud, besides its inherent agility, so synonymous with effective public services? We have learnt in AWS, from working with governments around the globe, that the hallmark of a well-delivered service often includes at least four separate factors, all of which are intrinsic features of cloud computing.
The first is elasticity, meaning that the service in question can withstand surges in demand, whether unforeseen or not. If it can’t, systems fail and citizens become frustrated and disaffected. The use of AWS by UCAS, the UK equivalent of the CAO, demonstrates how the cloud helps public authorities to manage demand peaks. Once a year, when it releases ALevel results in August, the UCAS website experiences a massive influx of traffic. AWS allows UCAS to scale up to accommodate that demand and then scale back down to normal loads afterwards, while paying only for what it needs.
The second factor is security and privacy. People care (and rightly so) about how their data is treated by public bodies. If they feel their personal details are not secure, they can quickly lose trust in the public services that utilise them. The cloud though provides the necessary, and reassuring, safeguards that citizens demand. As security is our top priority in AWS, we invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in firstclass protections. The public services that rely on us therefore benefit from that massive economy of scale and the security it affords. This is a central reason why so many institutions are transitioning to AWS. In 2019, for example, Grand River Hospital, a major
Canadian hospital in the State of Ontario, turned to AWS to house its highly sensitive patient data. The hospital needed to safely store confidential information but also in such a way that it was accessible, as necessary, to the patients concerned under Canadian law. Using the cloud made that possible.
The third element is innovation. The best delivered public services are often those that use new tools to improve every-day outcomes for people. This quality is actually one of the most exciting things about cloud computing; it allows public bodies access to cuttingedge technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, without the need to invest in costly super computers. The experience of Transport for NSW (TfNSW), an Australian Government Agency responsible for improving public transport, brings that to life. In 2018, TfNSW began using AWS machinelearning to transition from historicallybased analytics to a forward-looking model with predictive capability. The power of those cloud services now means that TfNSW is better able to predict passenger numbers across its entire transport network, thereby improving the experience of all who use it.
The final factor is the least tangible: aspiration. To be sure, the priority for many people is that governments do the simple things well, but they increasingly want them to think big too and to try achieve goals that were technologically out-of-reach only a decade or two ago. This is where the cloud comes in, it opens up new horizons in what is possible. Take, for example, AWS data analytics tools that are helping make breakthroughs in how medical conditions are identified and diagnosed. SkinVision, an international start-up, uses AWS to help identify skin cancer (the most common form of cancer in Ireland). Its free-to-download app, regulated by the EU as a medical device, allows people to scan moles and skin lesions in their own homes. The images are then assessed by machine learning-based algorithms. This is quickening diagnosis, expediting treatment, and saving lives. Singapore, Norway, Australia, and Canada, have already recognised these inter-connections between the cloud and first-rate public services. They are now putting the cloud to good use and reaping its benefits.
Ireland is more than ready to catch the crest of that wave. It has a progressive government cloud-first strategy, adopted in 2019, that encourages public sector bodies to maximise cloud opportunities. It has extensive cloud infrastructure already in place, developed by companies like AWS, ready to be leveraged. And it has the requisite acumen across the public sector to bring big ideas, like wide-scale cloud adoption, fully to fruition.
The use of the cloud in some recent Irish Government projects, such as the Covid smartphone app, which is run on AWS, provides just a glimpse of its wider potential. The full array of possibilities that the cloud opens up across so many different policy and operational areas is really almost endless. Moving to it, and leaving antiquated computing behind, is also more straightforward than it might seem. AWS has extensive global experience of working with public bodies — including over 7,500 government agencies, 14,000 academic institutions, and 35,000 nonprofits — to make that transition as smooth as possible. And the end result is almost always the same: money is saved, outcomes are improved, and citizens are better served.
If you want to learn more about how the AWS Cloud can help your organisation to innovate and digitally transform, please contact the Irish AWS Public Sector team.
E: aws-publicsector-ireland@amazon.com
