Schools, libraries, Government offices, post offices and a range of private sector businesses including banks, pubs and hotels, should act as information technology access points for local communities, according to the latest Information Society Commission report.
The report, IT Access for All, says technology should be made more widely available to the general public through a network of IT access centres at a local level. These would increase technology usage nationwide and target socially excluded groups, the report concludes.
The report emphasises access provision for marginalised and socially excluded groups within society. Research carried out by MRBI for the Information Society Commission found that individuals who are socially excluded are generally identified with low levels of education, low levels of income and unemployment.
The elderly, manual workers, housewives, the farming community and, in general, women were more likely to be "late adopters" of technology, according to the research.
The report says a strong social policy direction is essential to ensure the benefits of the information age are spread throughout society. It recommends the Government should consider offering financial and other incentives to enable the less well-off sections of society to afford new technologies.
The report specifically targets people with disabilities who, it says, should be allowed to obtain VAT refunds on information and communications technology.
The report also recommends a full liberalisation of the telecommunications market as quickly as possible to ensure the lowest possible price for the consumer.
The number of public Internet access points in public libraries should be extended to the maximum possible and schools should be encouraged to act as central facilitators of community access.
Enabling community access to technology should become a condition or qualifier on schools obtaining extra funding for information technology, said Ms Viviene Jupp, chairwoman of the commission, at yesterday's publication. The private sector must also play an active role in facilitating access to new technology.
The commission was originally invited by the Government in January 1999 to assess the viability of providing an e-mail address and Internet access for every citizen. According to Ms Jupp, it would be relatively easy to provide an e-mail address for every citizen but gaining access to the technology was the more important issue.
