New Connections - Department of Taoiseach

post-primary level and HEA have gone to the marketplace to investigate the potential for e-learning tocontribute to the further development of higher and further education and training in Ireland.2.6.3 Issues arisingThe Information Society Policy Unit expects to be represented on a Steering Group chaired by D/ETEto implement the recommendations of the Lifelong Task Force. It is also expected that the SteeringGroup will consider the Information Society Commission report, Building the Knowledge Society and aplanned impact analysis report by the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) on capitalinvestment in ICT in the primary and secondary education sectors.2.7 e-Inclusion2.7.1 The Government continues to place a high priority on the need for an inclusive approach to theimplementation of all strands of the information society agenda. A number of projects including pilotshave been completed or have reached an evaluation stage in their lifecycle (e.g. the Libraries initiative,the Muintir na Tíre ISP project, Equalskills and the CAÍT initiative). The Universal Participationinitiative has not yet commenced and action is required early in 2003 to address this. In addition toprojects driven by central Government, a number of Local Authorities have community access projectsin progress. However, the ISPU does not have a comprehensive picture of all State-supported activityin this area. There is therefore the potential for overlap, duplication and inefficient use of publicresources that needs to be examined and, if necessary, addressed. In addition, the Information SocietyCommission’s first report has made a number of recommendations that highlight the need to evaluatecurrent strategy implementation and a report has been commissioned on inclusive Information Societydevelopment due for publication in February.2.7.2 Issues arisingThe primary focus of the Department of the Taoiseach has been to ensure that there is a policyframework to underpin the successful implementation of the Government’s objective of an InformationSociety for all. At this juncture, the Department is of the view that strategy should be reviewed takingaccount of the recently published report of the ISC and the results of the research commissioned by theISC on inclusive Information Society development.6