New roadmap sets country-specific targets for digital transformation
Through the publication of its first national roadmap for digital transformation, the Government has established new targets in a bid to retain its status as a digital leader in the European Union.
The Digital Decade Policy Programme seeks to build on the country-specific recommendations in the European Commission’s report on the State of the Digital Decade 2023 and broaden progress beyond a strong digitalisation of government.
Ireland boasts a 100 per cent score for digitalisation of government, including services to businesses, but the roadmap acknowledges notable challenges including slow digitalisation of the health sector, the need for continuous digital skills provision, and the need for additional connectivity infrastructure.
The strategic roadmap focuses on four areas, namely:
• skills;
• digital infrastructure;
• digital transformation of businesses; and
• digital public services.
In 2022, the European Commission launched the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, which set up an annual cooperation cycle to achieve common objectives and targets amongst all EU member states.
In February 2022, the Irish Government launched the Harnessing Digital – The Digital Ireland Framework, Ireland’s National Digital Strategy “to drive a coherent and impactful approach to the digital agenda”.
Harnessing Digital is aligned with the EU’s Digital Decade 2030 Programme and seeks to contribute to the achievement of its targets to progress the digitalisation of enterprise and public services.
Targets
The Government wants a digitally skilled population and high skilled digital professionals, where at least 80 per cent of those aged between 16 and 74 have at least basic digital skills with the aim of achieving greater gender balance, as well as increasing the number of graduates with higher-level digital skills.
The Government assesses that Ireland is “excelling” in the provision of highly skilled ICT graduates at 8.6 per cent, which is over double the EU average at 3.9 per cent. However, it adds that it is “conscious that despite Ireland’s above average scores across many of the indicators… it is imperative that we continue to provide the digital skills needed to support the specific needs of the labour markets across all areas of the economy”.
For digital infrastructure, the Government is focusing on four principles:
• Connectivity: The Government wants all Irish households and businesses to be covered by a Gigabit network no later than 2028. The Government also wants all populated areas in the country to be covered by 5G no later than 2030.
• Cutting edge semiconductors: Secure, resilient, performant and sustainable digital infrastructures “where the production, in accordance with Union Law on environmental sustainability, of cutting-edge semiconductors in the union is at least 20 per cent of world production value”.
• Data, edge, and cloud: The Government want 23 public sector edge nodes by 2025.
• Computing: Secure, resilient, performant and sustainable digital infrastructures where the union has its first computer with quantum acceleration, “paving the way for the union to be at the cutting edge of quantum capabilities by 2020”.
While the Government is progressing well towards Digital Decade connectivity targets, the country requires additional international subsea cable routes, both transatlantic (EU to North/South America) and between other EU member states, to meet the demand for secure and resilient connectivity capable of meeting projected data flows.
On semiconductors, Ireland is a leading centre for this technology. Some of the most advanced chip manufacturing in Europe is developed in the State. There are over 20,000 people currently employed in Ireland’s semiconductor industry, with the State exporting €13.5 billion worth of products annually.
In addition, the Government wants to see an increase in the digitalisation of businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and by 2030, aspires to have 90 per cent of SMEs at basic digital intensity level.
In keeping with the EU’s target of tech uptake, the roadmap envisages at least 75 per cent of enterprises increasing take-up in cloud computing, big data, and AI.At least 800 businesses will be supported in this take-up by 2026 under the €85 million Digital Transition Fund to support businesses to digitalise.
Furthermore, at least 35 per cent of state funding for start-up and early-state businesses is to be invested in innovative digital businesses from 2022.
Public services
The digitalisation of public services has proven to be a more complicated endeavour for the Government.
While Ireland scores strongly in the digitalisation of government, with a 100 per cent score relation to services to businesses, it has been highlighted that further efforts are needed to digitalise the health sector in order to meet the objective of access for all EU citizens to their Digital Decade health records.
The Digital Health and Social Care Roadmap, launched in May 2024 by the Department of Health, articulates objectives for everyone using the Irish health service to have access to their own digital health record.
Ireland has reached their 100 per cent target for digital public services for business “through a trusted, user-driven, intuitive, inclusive and efficient world-leading digital government service”.
The country is on target regarding digital public services for citizens (81 per cent compared to the EU average of 77 per cent), and the State’s national target is more ambitious than the EU-level target (90 per cent of applicable services to be consumed online by the end of the decade).
Additionally, the Government has seen a high take-up of MyGovID, with close to 2.2 million verified accounts by the end of Q3 2023, with ambitions to have 80 per cent of eligible citizens using MyGovID by 2030.
The State remains committed to maintaining its progress and implementation across the continuing digitalisation of public services, with work underway to begin implementation of a digital wallet.
