Bord Gais crowned e-government champion
22-02-2008
by Emmet Ryan

 

At a ceremony in Dublin's Four Seasons Hotel, Bord Gais picked up two awards as it claimed the title of overall winner and the award for Best Commercial State Body for its website bordgaisenergysupply.ie . The website, which allows users to pay their bills online and submit meter readings online, was described by the judges as being in most cases "superior to almost any other transactional website. It is intuitive, fully functional and of great benefit to both the organisation and to its customers. It is a credit to those who led the project."

Cork City Council also had plenty to smile about as it won two awards, the Accessible Irish eGovernment Award and the e Project Management category, for its accesscork.ie website which assists people with disabilities to identify accessible shops, restaurants, pubs, accommodation and entertainment venues in Cork city.

In all there were 12 awards presented and the other notable winners included the Revenue Online Service, which took home the Central Irish eGovernment Award for its websites revenue.ie and ros.ie, while the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources won the marketing category for its Power of One campaign. A full list of the winners can be found here.

While the awards were mostly a night of celebration, Maeve Kneafsey, whose firm Elucidate co-hosted the event, said more work needed to be done for eGovernment projects to fully deliver on their potential.

"E-government projects that use the interactivity and speed of the internet to provide public services need an enforcer, someone clearly identifiable to drive cost savings and efficiencies within government departments and public service organisation and to ensure that these major projects are delivered," said Kneafsey, who is also chair of the Irish Internet Association.

"The new eagerly-awaited Action Plan on the Knowledge Society, due to be published by the Department of the Taoiseach since 2006, must avoid any wooliness in what it sets as benchmarks and targets for e-government. It is that very wooliness that results in unrealistic targets being set and confused priorities being drawn up."

Kneafsey add that she would welcome news of how the Action Plan is progressing, saying that many in the online sector haven't been consulted on it yet.