Madam, - In a Dáil debate on May 30th, 2000, the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, outlined the second stage of the Electronic Commerce Bill 2000. She said: "There is no doubt that electronic commerce will migrate towards countries which provide low cost, high quality telecommunications and Internet services. . . My vision of what the information society should mean in Ireland is one that includes all of society. . . interconnected in the first fully networked nation".
That was almost seven years ago. In the interim, the cost of telecommunications in Ireland has remained one of the highest in the EU, broadband roll-out has been lethargic, there has been a failed attempt at electronic voting, and more than 80 per cent of schools with internet access - via now-ageing computers - have no technical support.
What has happened to Mrs O'Rourke's visionary road-map toward a "fully networked nation"?
Meanwhile Estonia, which joined the EU in 2004 as a comparatively poor nation, has introduced "e-government" , where cabinet meetings are paperless sessions using a web-based document system, and made Tallinn the first wi-fi capital in Europe. And your correspondent Daniel McLaughlin informs us that Estonia has enabled more than 30,000 citizens to confidently cast ballots online ( The Irish Times, February 2nd).
In an admirably short time Estonia has followed up its vision of an information society with tangible actions to achieve tangible results. Estonia has evolved into E-Stonia - a "fully networked nation", as Mrs O'Rourke wished for Ireland seven years ago. -Yours, etc.
NIALL O'DONOGHUE, Vesilahti, Finland.