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Overview

A key focus of digital inclusion is getting more people to use modern digital technologies – in particular internet related technologies.

Key statistics on digital engagement

· About one adult in five - age 16-74 - (21%) has never used the internet.*

· 71.4% of adults use the internet regularly (at least once a week)*

· There are computers in 3 out of 4 homes (74.3%)#

· About 1 home in 4 (26.4%) does not have an internet connection. #

· Two thirds of homes (65.29%) had a broadband connection (2011) #

· 42.8% of the population ordered goods or services on-line (2011) *

· 40.3% of the population participated in social networks in 2011 *

· Less than 1 in 4 (22.9%) of SMEs were selling on-line in 2011. *

Achieving more widespread digital inclusion is important because of the benefits it will deliver for all. The attainment of increased digital engagement is a crucial enabling measure underpinning a range of Government strategic and policy objectives and will be central to the next National Digital Strategy currently in preparation. It is crucial to the development of Ireland as a knowledge society, and to realising the full potential of delivering increased efficiencies in public service delivery (eGovernment). It can contribute to increasing competiveness as well as to better social justice and equality outcomes. For citizens, being on-line means opportunities to save money, better access to services, access to more information and resources – many of them free – more communication and networking opportunities and much more.

Digital inclusion has been identified as a priority in the Technology Actions Report to Support the Smart Economy of July 2009 (pages 76-77). The e-Health report was published on 20 July 2011. Digital Inclusion is also a priority in an EU context. More information on the EU dimension is available at http://www.epractice.eu/einclusion.

There are also specific targets for increased digital inclusion set in the Digital Agenda for Europe including:- halve (to 15%) the proportion of the adult population who have never used internet and increase regular internet use from 60% to 75% by 2015.

The Department – through the eInclusion Section of the Knowledge Society Division - is seeking to promote higher levels of digital inclusion in Ireland. In pursuit of this objective we work with other key stakeholders to identify the most effective approaches and strategies to promote more digital inclusion. The Department also represents Ireland on the Digital Inclusion Workstream set up under the British Irish Council. Initiatives in other administrations, such as the UK’ Race On-line – are also relevant.

There are a range of initiatives operating in Ireland which are helping to achieve more widespread digital inclusion. Amongst these are basic skills measures such as Age Action Ireland’s Getting Started programme, the Log on Learn initiative, BT’s Connected communities initiative, Irish Internet Association’s (IIA) Digitise the Nation, and Internet Buttons. Google are focusing on digital engagement through their Age Engage initiative which demonstrates that older people are never too old to learn, the fantastic opportunities for those who do engage - and how easy it can be to engage.
Get Your Folks Online developed by Google, in partnership with Age Action Ireland is a free and easy to use website consisting of lesson plans to help people pass on Internet skills to someone else.

Google are also contributing to awareness raising through their sponsorship of the Silver Surfer Awards with Age Action Ireland. Some approaches focus on particular sectors (e.g. the work being done by ENCLUDE to transform the operations of charity organisations). Digital inclusion is also relevant to small businesses. A number of initiatives are currently focusing on developing the potential of SMEs to improve their on-line capabilities. These include the Getting Irish Business On-line initiative from Google as well as a pilot initiative - WebActivate.

Internet Buttons is a free webtool that allows those confident on the net to create an easy-to-use customised web browser for family members, friends or neighbours who are new to the internet or find it confusing. The Internet Buttons browser links to sites and services which the the person being helped might find useful or enjoyable.

The DIEGO (Digitally Inclusive eGovernment) project provides access to the Government scene in a user friendly manner. It focuses on making on-line public services relevant and easy to access and use. It can be used form a regular PC but also using touch screens. There is also a read aloud feature for those who may wish to use it. You can try out the service at DIEGO and there is also an introductory video to the project available on the DIEGO YouTube channel.

Data on digital inclusion from the EU Digital Agenda Scoreboard for Ireland for 2012 shows some significant improvements in internet use and digital engagement. In 2011 over 71% of the population used the internet regularly (defined as at least once a week), up 8 percentage points (pp) since 2010, and 4 pp above the EU average. The 21% of citizens who have never used the internet is a reduction of 6 pp since 2010 and now also better than the EU average. All stakeholders involved in bringing about this improvement deserve credit. The task now is to build further on this progress.

The Department has provided grant assistance to community and voluntary sector organisations to support projects providing basic internet use training. These schemes known as BenefIT (Benefit from Information Technology) build on earlier schemes between them the Benefit schemes are providing assistance mostly in the form of training to approximatley 100,000 people.Under the current Benefit scheme basic, on-line training is being provided to approx 40,000 people at about 700 locations throughout Ireland. The Report on the outcome of the first BenefIT scheme using quantitative and qualitative analysis demonstrated that the scheme was very successful. It outlines the outcomes of each of the projects, identifies approaches that worked best and highlightes some of projects of note including the Getting Started programme, the Simple IT project in Limerick and the DCU Intergenerational Learning project. Further grants were awarded under the Benefit 2 scheme under which over 7000 people were trained during 2010.

Archive information relating to digital inclusion can be found here.