More than one-third of the Government's proposed information technology initiatives are running behind schedule, a new report published yesterday shows.

New Connections Progress Report details 57 e-government projects that have been "slowed" for a variety of reasons. The projects affected include the Government's flagship project to develop a public services broker.

This broker will be the engine that will drive the delivery of many public services over the internet and forms a central plank of Government policy towards the information society. It will comprise a citizen registration service and authentication system that can store citizens' personal identities in a database, and enable them to interact with agencies.

Despite issuing a tender inviting companies to bid to construct the public services broker more than six months ago, no contract has yet been awarded. Construction work was due to begin in January 2003, the report notes.

Other services that are delayed include a project to enable people to pay motor tax over the internet. This project was intended to go live in September 2002 but is not yet up and running, it says.

However, the report says 83 e-government projects are on schedule and 14 have already been completed.

Minister of State for the Information Society, Ms Mary Hanafin, said the report sent out a clear signal to focus on minimising delays, and ensure the continued delivery of the Government's technology action plan. But Ms Hanafin also said much progress had been made since the first publication of the New Connections policy framework in March 2002.