Maynooth University and the Southern Regional Assembly, as ESPON Contact Point (ECP) and Monitoring Committee (MC) members respectively for Ireland, invite you to an on-line seminar on the theme of Measuring Digital Maturity in Local and Regional Government: Supports from ESPON.

In July 2024, Ireland published its digital and ICT strategy for local government, entitled Digital Local Government: Working for everyone, Ireland’s Local Government Digital and ICT Strategy 2030. This strategy, closely aligned to the European Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles, recognises the growing role of technology and digitalisation in the delivery of services at local government level – leading, ideally, to a more effective, efficient and timely delivery.  The strategy is centred of four key themes, namely:

1. Digital services;
2. Digital communities;
3. Digital workforce; and
4. Digital systems

and is seen as playing a critical role in helping local authorities achieve national policy objectives around climate change, housing delivery and sustainable development.

As recognised by this national strategy, local government has played a key role in advancing the digital agenda – particularly in the past 7-8 years.  Supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development, the role of the Local Authority Broadband Officer was established to facilitate efficient rollout of the National Broadband Plan, act as the first point of contact for telco operators and drive digital initiatives at a local level. Broadband Officers have been essential in shaping local digital strategies, helping communities, businesses, and citizens to utilize broadband and digital technologies fully. 

Digital Maturity Assessment provides local (and regional) authorities with a baseline on where they are with their digital transformation journey at a point in time and identifies what opportunities exist going forward. ESPON LORDIMAS, developed in collaboration with a number of agencies including Living-in.EU, is a free and interactive tool that empowers local and regional governments across Europe to assess their digital progress, foster open data sharing and promote more efficient governance. The tool divides the digital landscape into seven sections, guided by 29 local and regional digital indicators. It offers local governments and data managers the ability to assess their digital maturity and gain access to invaluable insights and, importantly, it allows authorities to revisit and update their data, ensuring it stays in line with the evolving challenges and needs.

The purpose of this half-day seminar is to consider what is meant by, and what are the benefits of, digital maturity assessment for government, and why this is becoming of increasing importance – not only in policy-development terms but also across various funding programmes. This event considers how maturity assessment tools such as ESPON LORDIMAS – developed in partnership between ESPON, the European Commission, the European Committee of the Regions, Living-in.eu, Euro Cities, and Open & Agile Smart Cities, can assist regional and local government in benchmarking their digital maturity while also ‘bench-learning’ from other similar sized cities and regions across Europe.