Irish E-Government Initiative as a Threat to Individual Liberties - Essay Example

IRISH GOVERNMENT'S REACH E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE IS A THREAT TO INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES' Introduction The increase wave of globalization that has been taking place in the world has been changing in many fronts in the world. It has not only changed the business world but there has also been a change in the social life as well the change is social life has been attributed by increasing interaction of people from all parts of the world. This has contributed to polarized world culture where all standards of life are judged by one global accepted standard. There has also been a change in the landscape of governance in the world. In this regard there has been changing nature of governance where the governments have become more open to the scrutiny of the world. The evolution in communication and information technology has been effective in changing the way we communicate. There has been increasing call for democratic regime which is more open and accountable to the people. This has led to the change of view of governance as a leadership by the people and for the people in which the ruled have more say. With the need to be more open to the public and to be more accountable in deliver of service, many government in the world have been taking drastic measures which are aimed at making their service deliver structure better to the people. There has also bee a call for more accountability in governance. In this case the governments have been working to have a system through which the citizens can learn about what is happening in the government and also systematically seek their opinion on various issues that relates to governance. In this case e-government has become one of the most important tools that are being used by various governments in order to enhance accountability and ensure deliver of quality services. E-government in its simple definition can be termed as the use of information can communication technologies in order to improve the activities of the public sector organizations. This means that it is the application of the modern ICT tools in order to enhance governance and delivery of services to the public. It is the systematic arrangement of the public sector such that it is using the modern technology to deliver services to the people and to communication with the people. E-government is portrayed in there main domains. First there has to be improvement of the governance process. This mans that the process of e-administration has to be more efficient and has to be different as compared to the other methods of governance. Second there has to be connectivity of the citizens. This means that eCitizens and eService have to be integrated in the structure. Third there has to be a systematic building of external interactions. In this case there has to be inclusion of eSociety. These three domains mainly addresses the problem that the government may be too costly, too inefficient and ineffective and too self-serving and inconvenient for citizens and too insular in failure to include the larger societies. (Ntiro, 2000) e- Government in Ireland Irish government has been one of the governments in the world which have adapted polices of e-government in order to ensure that there is superior delivery of services. The government has been taking measures which are aimed at ensuring that the public service bodies come up with good e-government policies which are aimed at addressing the various needs of the publics. The Irish government has been awarding the public sector according to the way in which they have been able to implement e-government approaches in their departments. The government has been arming its department with ICT tools that are aimed at ensuring that there is efficient delivery of services to the people. The government agencies have been striving to ensure that they deliver quality services to the people. This has been in line with the revolution in the use of ICT tools by the population which has been considered as one of the simplest way to access to the government services. The Irish government has been carrying out the initiative in line with what has been happening in other governments in the world. It has particularly been aiming at achieving the standards that have been set the European Union which has showed the need to open public sector website and their content to the members of het public in special cases with enabling citizens with disability who finds it difficult to travel and access government services. The Irish government has complied with this provision and made all public sectors website open to the citizens. This has been implemented mainly through the Reach. Nature of Reach This is a government agency which was established in 1999 in order to develop strategies which could be used to integrate the public services and to come up with a framework for the implementation of e-government. The agencies was commissioned in 2000 by the Irish government in order to develop the Public Service Broker (PSB) and since then it has been concentration on defining het implementing the architecture and principles that underlies the operation of the public series broker. Reach has been eh sector of the Irish government which was given the mandate to implement various cross cutting projects which had been set up the government in regard to the delivery of e-government services in Ireland. The principle mission of Reach was to improve the quality of service and the efficiency in the delivery of these services by the government through the public service sector. This was seen a close interaction in the delivery of service which would enhance the capacity of the governmental department to deliver services to one another and to the public in general. (Rechservices, 2008) Reach was in particular given the mandate to deliver benefits across the public sector. In this regard it was given the mandate to act as the main factor in the coordination of the e-government service in the public sector. It function was overseen by an advisory board which had members drawn from different departments and agencies. Therefore there are various members who were given seats and Reach in a move which was to ensure that all the sectors of the government were well integrated and represented in the decision making process. (Reach, 2008) However the function of reach has now been taken over by the department of finance which has assumed the sole responsibility of coordinating the e-government services in the Irish government. In the case the technology policy division in the department of finance has been given the overall duty of cording the e-government services. Therefore the main function of Reach was to connect people and the public services. It had the mandate of putting in place various polices which were all aimed at ensuring that there was deliver of e-government service to the people. The broker has been acting as a helper between the customers and the public service agencies. The broker has been developed by Reach but it has been operated by a separate agency. One of the works that was given to the broker has been to deal with issue of interoperability, internet security and internet privacy. Reach has been aimed at providing one stop service for public customers. It has been aiming at enabling them to access all the related series from one single point of contact. It has also been looking at giving them identity, information once instead of having to go through many related services. In order to ensure that there has been the aspect of data sharing between the department which has been aimed at promoting customer services and efficiency and to reduce the overall need to have physical document. The mandate that has been given to Reach in this case can be categorized in the following points. It has been given the mandate to develop and implement an integrated system of process that provides a standard means of accessing public service information or the PSB. It has also been mandate to develop the public service cards and the only customer security key in accessing public services. It has also been mandate to promote the use of personal public service number (PPSN) which had earlier been now as RSI number by the public and the public service agencies. Through the PPSN a customer has the right the deposit their personal data for access in the public service sector. The creation of the Public service Card has also been the mandate of the agency. Although the above has been protected under various acts including Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act, and the Social Welfare Act, they have been seen as possible way of infringing to the personal rights and personal liberty. (Connolly et al., 2004) Privacy issues There have been many provisions that have been made with the Reach and the issue of entry of personal data and the use of Public Service Card. The bedrock of issue is that the staffs that will be serving the customer have been given the right to access some of the personal data that is entered in the account. There has been a limitation of the personal data that the concerned staffs are likely to views but the extent of the information that they have been allowed to view has not been specified. In this case there is a great fear among the public that the use of the internet will led to exposure of their information to the public. Despite the effort that have been made by the government and other concerned parties on the way in which Reach has been designed in order to take care of the privacy issue, 56 percent of the Irish people believe that the use of the intent and the entry of the personal information threatened their privacy. Under the personal liberty provision of the country, every individual person is entitled to the freedon of privacy of information. In this case one has the right not to revealed personal details unless in case where they are wanted by the authority. This is a great provision towards the freedom of information which is one of the most important components of the human right charter of the UN which is upheld by the nation. The fact that this may become the future service delivery center in the country has an effect in that most people will be obliged to given their personal information. There has been a great fear in the public that the provisions that have been put in place are not enough to guarantee them the security of their important information. It has not yet defined the nature of the personal information that will be needed in order to be given some service. In some cases one may be obliged to give more information that necessary in order to access some service. But the problem has been compounded by the fact that there has been increasing openness through the use of computers. There has not been computer privacy in the world. The fear is made more by the issue of hacking and others which can even infringe on the security of information of individual. Conclusion Though the Irish government has been revolutionizing the public service sector through the use of the e-government services, there are still issues that have not been fully answered by the way in which the government is implementing the policy. The privacy policy as laid down by Reach and the broker system has become an issue that is likely to constrain the success of the e-government service. The main issue here has been the use of personal number and the entry of personal information that will enable one to access government services. This has been seen as a possible threat to personal liberty. Reference Connoly, C., Booth, I., Ravindra, P., Dijk, P., & Vierboom, F. (2004). Privacy Law and Policy Reporter. Retrieved from http://search.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/PLPR/2004/7.html on 21st May 2008 Ntiro, S. (2000). E-government in Eastern Africa. KPMG, Dare Salaam Reach, (2008). About Reach. Retrieved from http://www.reach.ie/htm on 21st May 2008 Rechservices, (2008). Direct Aces to Government series. Retrieved from https://www.reachservices.ie/reachPortal/appmanager/portal/default on 21st May 2008 Read More