A global study has ranked Ireland's eGovernment presence 11th worldwide, with further work needed to promote the uptake of online services.
Accenture's survey, titled "eGovernment Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value," is the consultancy's fifth annual study of eGovernment, which is defined as government provision of information about services, as well as the ability to conduct government transactions via the Internet.
The study questioned 5,000 internet users in 12 countries, and included a quantitative assessment of the maturity of eGovernment services in 22 countries.
For Ireland the study indicates that there is work to be done in promoting the uptake of online services. Approximately 50% of the population in Ireland are regular internet users, yet only 60% of these have ever visited a Government website.
The study found that Canada ranked first out of 22 countries. Singapore and the United States shared the second place ranking. France ranked eighth and the Netherlands and the United Kingdom tied for ninth.
The study found that advances in eGovernment maturity are slowing down as most countries have reached plateaus in terms of innovation of the services they offer.
Saving time and money are the primary reasons that respondents said they would conduct transactions with governments online.
However, the study found that the uptake of eGovernment services is low due to difficulty finding the correct site, ease of conducting business by telephone or in person and on-line privacy concerns.
