The Government's plan to establish an online public broker at the heart of a new system to deliver public services will not force citizens to use the Web, rather it will offer people a choice of ways to access services.
However, it will have implications for staffing and management in the civil and public services, according to Mr Oliver Ryan, director of Reach, the agency overseeing the implementation of technology in Government services.
The public service broker will act as a central data vault for citizens, storing their personal details and private information in a way that will enable them to interact with public bodies over the Web. The Government also plans to use the broker as the basis for a new "one-stop shop" that would offer citizens a single point of access to public services that are currently provided by a plethora of different public agencies such as local authorities, health boards and Government departments.
A pilot project is already up and running in Donegal, where the local authority has set up five or six regional offices to act as "one- stop shops" for council business, says Mr Ryan. It has invited several other agencies to get involved in the project, and staff from health boards and the citizens information centre are taking part, he says.
Although much of the focus on the State's e-Government strategy has so far rested with technology, management and organisational issues are as important, he adds.
"Agencies will have to reconsider their front-desk systems [customer-facing staff\]. Some will rationalise their systems or may go in with other agencies," says Mr Ryan. "This creates implications for front-line staff in agencies."
No decision has been taken on which organisation or agency will take the lead role in forming the network of offices that will offer these integrated public services. Mr Ryan says, as far as Reach is concerned, local authorities and An Post are in the frame.
He admits neither the Government nor the Reach agency has really engaged yet with trade unions on the issue of rationalising jobs. This would be done as part of a partnership process, he adds.
"The Government has not got to that stage yet. . . I don't think the wider and deeper issues have been tackled."
But a successful implementation of the new public broker and the introduction of a new system to deliver public services through a "one-stop shop" would enable the Government to cut costs.
"It [the broker\] should lead to efficiencies for Government bodies and it does open the possibility that agencies will just deal electronically with the world," says Mr Ryan. "An agency may in the future just deal with back-end Web-based processes and it won't matter how the customer comes in. . . it will be computer-to-computer-based interaction."
The broker would enable some agencies to withdraw from direct customer-facing roles. Instead, they could use the new network of offices to deliver information via the broker's Web-based system to its central office for processing.
However, this raises issues about the confidence of staff to deal with services provided by a range of different public agencies. We've got to make sure it doesn't expose staff to liabilities if they make a mistake, says Mr Ryan.
"Systems have to be there to support staff and there are only so many specialisms staff can deal with. We can't expect them to be both a tax expert and a pensions expert. Rather, staff would deal with only the simple part of a transaction."
Many citizens would choose to conduct their transactions online, reducing the direct contact with front-desk staff. These customers, and others who opt to use the telephone, would be supported by a new network of call centres, which the Government plans to set up.
Telephone operatives would be able to access customers' information in the broker system by using a personal identity number or some other security technique to complete transactions on the behalf of citizens, says Mr Ryan.
Some services would require greater amounts of information and more authentication. "All a person may need to get a dog licence online could be a name, whereas someone claiming unemployment benefit and child support would need to provide more details of their family," he adds.
The Reach tender sets a target of attracting 750,000 users within five years of the service going live and, with its introduction planned for November of next year, the Government doesn't have long to address the myriad of complex management and labour issues that will arise.
