On 5 July 2020, the Business Post published an in-depth feature on government digitalisation in Ireland, exploring how citizen engagement with digital public services accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The article, “Crossing the Digital Divide” by Ian Campbell, examined how public sector organisations adapted to remote working and digital service delivery, while also highlighting the increasing momentum behind cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives across government.
Image caption: Business Post feature exploring digital transformation across the Irish public sector.
Inside Ireland’s Public Sector Digital Transformation Journey
The article included perspectives from several key figures involved in Ireland’s digital transformation efforts, including Government Chief Information Officer Barry Lowry and Ronan Laffan, Head of Advisory Services at Version 1.
Drawing on Version 1’s experience working with many of Ireland’s largest government departments and agencies, Laffan shared insights into how cloud adoption was evolving across the public sector.
Growing Appetite for Cloud Technology
According to Laffan, while many large government departments had not yet fully embraced public cloud technologies, there was increasing interest among smaller agencies and public sector organisations.
“Large government departments are still not using the public cloud, but there is a growing appetite for what it can deliver within smaller agencies and state organisations.”
He noted that while change within government can be gradual, momentum towards cloud adoption was becoming increasingly evident.
“Change takes a long time in government, but there is definitely momentum and undoubtedly a trend to adopt and move to the cloud.”
Version 1 was supporting a wide range of public sector organisations at the time, including Revenue, the Houses of the Oireachtas and several government departments.
The company had also been working with the Department of Agriculture on cloud-native technologies operating within on-premises datacentre environments.
Balancing Innovation and Security
Laffan explained that large public sector organisations often adopt a cautious approach to technology transformation due to security, governance and operational considerations.
“No one in the bigger organisations will jump and change rapidly. Security is a concern and they don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket or be over-reliant on a single vendor.”
However, smaller organisations often benefited from having fewer legacy investments and could adopt cloud technologies more quickly.
“Smaller organisations don’t have the same level of investment, so it’s easier for them to adopt cloud.”
Transforming Parliamentary Processes
One example highlighted in the article was the digital transformation programme underway within the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The organisation was using cloud technologies to modernise and streamline processes associated with the passage of legislation through parliament.
“They are transitioning disconnected legacy systems with poor processes into a single integrated platform on the public cloud, sharing data securely at appropriate points in its lifecycle.”
The initiative demonstrated how cloud technologies could help modernise critical government services while improving efficiency and collaboration.
How the Public Sector Adapted to Remote Working
The onset of COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges for public sector organisations, many of which had not traditionally embraced remote working at scale.
Despite these concerns, Laffan praised the speed and effectiveness of the public sector’s response.
“As it turned out, there was no downtime among staff in any of the organisations we work with, which is absolutely extraordinary. Within the first two weeks, they resolved all their issues and seem to have been working harder than ever.”
While some paper-based and legislatively mandated processes proved more challenging to digitise, organisations such as Revenue, Transport and Agriculture were already operating highly digital environments, enabling a relatively smooth transition to remote working.
The Shift to Agile Ways of Working
The pandemic also accelerated changes in how technology projects were delivered.
Laffan described one government project that had traditionally followed a waterfall methodology but was forced to embrace agile delivery practices when teams moved to remote working.
“They were introduced to the world of stand-ups and sprints and embraced it wholeheartedly. It has been a total success and a transformational way of working for them.”
This experience highlighted how necessity often accelerated digital and cultural transformation within organisations.
Redefining Resilience
The article concluded by discussing how the concept of resilience had evolved during the pandemic.
Historically, resilience was often defined in terms of technology infrastructure, such as backup datacentres and disaster recovery facilities.
However, COVID-19 introduced a broader perspective.
“We always thought of resilience in terms of having a primary and secondary datacentre. Now we think of it as organisational resilience; being able to work from anywhere. That is a fundamental shift that will have a long-term impact on how we think of services.”
The experience demonstrated that resilience is not only about systems and technology but also about enabling organisations and employees to remain productive regardless of location.
