The Minister for Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, published Digital For Good: Ireland’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap.
As digital technologies become increasingly woven into our daily lives, there is a risk that some people could be disadvantaged and therefore left behind. However, much work is progressing across government to achieve digital inclusion through better skills, access and infrastructure.
Digital for Good: Ireland’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap brings this work together in a coherent manner and sets out key supplementary measures. This shows how Government continues to empower and support everyone to use digital services in a meaningful way. It is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ principle of ‘Leave No One Behind’.
The goals for the Roadmap are:
• To make Ireland one of the most digitally inclusive States in the EU.
• That everyone should have the opportunity to use digital services, including digital public services, in a meaningful way.
Speaking at the publication, Minister Donohoe said, “I am delighted to publish Digital for Good: Ireland’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap. There are many existing initiatives and supports being progressed that will directly contribute to improving digital inclusion through better skills, access and infrastructure, and reducing digital divides at national, local and community level right across the country. Digital for Good: Ireland’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap brings together this work in a coherent manner and sets out key supplementary measures. I would like to thank in particular the representative groups that were consulted in preparation of the Roadmap for their engagement and valuable contributions.”
The Roadmap also reflects the ask to public service bodies in the Public Service Transformation 2030 Strategy – Better Public Services, to identify and prioritise actions that support digital inclusion to make sure no one is left behind.
Minister of State Ossian Smyth said, “with this Roadmap, we are recommitting to making digital inclusion a core part of designing and delivering quality digital public services. This reflects our view that a digital by default approach to public services does not mean digital only.”
Digital for Good: Ireland’s Digital Inclusion Roadmap uses the dimensions of the national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital – Digital Transformation of Business, Digital Infrastructure, Skills, and Digitalisation of Public Services – as the context to translate high-level commitments into measures aimed at achieving these outcomes.
