Improving public services
The State’s public services strategy aims to deliver a “trusted, intuitive, and inclusive user-first digital government for all citizens and businesses to use”.
Connecting Government 2030: A Digital and ICT Strategy for Ireland’s Public Service replaces the eGovernment and Public Service ICT strategies and acts as an umbrella strategy for actions across several additional government policies.
The strategy outlines that the digitalisation of existing services is not sufficient to deliver an effective transformation, instead the current foundations must be built upon, and some government processes must be redesigned.
As outlined in the Digital Ireland Framework, the strategy targets 90 per cent of key public services being consumed online by 2030.
Additionally, the strategy sets a goal that by the end of 2030, Ireland must seek to be consistently ranked among the top three EU digital nations and the top 10 globally.
To achieve its goals, the strategy identifies six areas of priority action.
Firstly, it promotes a human-driven digital experience, where users are the priority behind service delivery. This includes creating end-to-end digital services, applying the ‘once-only’ principle so users do not have to repeatedly provide the same information, and developing services that are available 24/7.
Secondly, the strategy aims to harness data effectively by treating public service as a key strategic asset. This involves increased data sharing across the public sector and the improved safe reuse of data.
The Government also plans to increase transparency by giving citizens better access to their data and expanding the amount of data published to the public.
The third priority area is the concept of government as a platform which encourages the sharing of digital infrastructure, tools, and resources across the public service to simplify processes.
There will be increased use of cloud-based technology and the expansion of the Build to Share programme, which allows tools to be shared freely across departments.
The three remaining priorities focus on improving the Government’s internal processes of digital delivery. They involve improving digital skills at all levels of Government, using innovative approaches to solve existing problems, and implementing governance structures to drive and track progress.
The strategy will also be delivered through four core principles: digital by default and cloud-first services, an all-of-government approach, new ways of working, and systems that are privacy-driven and secure by design.
To support its aims, the strategy commits to the delivery of the first government data centre. This was completed in July 2025, and it is located on the Backweston campus in Kildare, and the Government has already begun moving its servers into the centre.
Additionally, the strategy commits to the development of a detailed implementation plan identifying key activities over the coming years and reporting dashboards to inform key stakeholders on the progress of the measures outlined in the strategy.
