Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

11.2.3 A range of online services are also available to the public:
• The online Motor Tax service, introduced in 2004, facilitates the
renewal of road tax online. Take up of the facility is growing, and
recommendations are made elsewhere in this report to further
incentivise the online option for renewal of motor tax (see section
10.6);
• Some 78 local authorities provide online enquiry facilities to planning
administration systems, and some also provide online access to all
planning application documents including a GIS system to show
locations. These initiatives should be extended to other local
authorities;
• The eLibraries project allows users to search for specific titles through
all of the local authority catalogues or browse the 11 million items in
stock by going through the central www.elibs.gov.ie. There is also a
service available www.borrowbooks.ie where all online catalogues are
available. Every library is also accessible through the eLibrary system;
• The ePayments system facilitates online payments for local authority
services (such as parking fines, bin tags and housing rents) to be
made in real-time. Payments can be made using debit or credit cards
or over the phone using Interactive Voice Response;
• The Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) payment system was
developed in 2009 to facilitate payment of the charge on second
homes;
• Each county/ city council is responsible for the compilation and
publication of the register of electors for their area. Authorities make
the register available to view online via their own websites. In order to
assist individuals to check the register online, a web application was
developed to provide a single online point of access to the electoral
register. Users can log on to www.checktheregister.ie and then
navigate to the relevant local authority to check that their details are
present and correct. Individuals can notify local authorities of any
errors or omissions.
11.2.4 Local authorities also make extensive use of IT in supporting the provision
of key service areas such as housing, water services and roads, as well as
in procurement, with the overall objective of enhancing efficiencies in the
delivery of services. Examples include:
• An online e-Procurement quotation application (www.laquotes.ie) for
local authorities facilitates quotations from suppliers in plant hire,
haulage, tool hire and supplies and services. Suppliers can now
submit a quotation online to all participating authorities rather than
submitting paper based quotations individually to each local authority.
The system has resulted in major benefits for internal workflows and
process management. Work is also underway to develop a Request
for Quotation module, document management functionality and a
multiparty framework agreements system which have the potential for
further savings (see section 9.4);
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