Government services heading towards electronic future

Minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Dermot Nesbitt, has reaffirmed Stormont’s commitment to modernising government and making it more open and accessible to the public.

The minister was addressing the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) Seminar, in the Newtownabbey Borough Council offices at New Mossley Mill on Thursday 20 September.

Mr Nesbitt said: “New and emerging developments in information and communications technologies are revolutionising how governments around the globe interact with their citizens. In Northern Ireland, we aspire to be a small, but successful, part of that revolution.”

Mr Nesbitt stressed that good progress was being made in taking forward this ‘e?Government’ agenda.

He continued: “The Executive recently endorsed targets to deliver 25 per cent of key government services electronically by the end of next year – and with 100 per cent delivered by 2005. Each of the Northern Ireland Departments is developing individual e-Business Strategies, which will help achieve these targets.”

To date, Stormont has launched services like OnlineNI, the Rural Portal project and the JobCentreOnline initiative in an effort to improve accessibility to government services.

Mr Nesbitt said: “It is important that we see this review as an opportunity to transform the way government, in the widest sense, does business and interacts with the citizen.

“What we are witnessing now is new and exciting, and which will not simply transform how government works, but also the services which we deliver and the means we use to deliver them.” (AMcE)