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The Irish Public Service Metadata Standard (IPSMS) has been developed as a result of a requirement to assists citizens in the location of public sector information and services. It forms a key building block in the development and provision of public sector on-line information and services.

The importance of a metadata standard for Irish public sector organisations was first acknowledged in the recommendations included in the Recommended Guidelines for Public Sector Organisations Web Publication Report of the Interdepartmental Group, October 1999;

Recommendation #6.1
It is recommended that all new documents be described using metadata tags and, in so far as is possible, existing information should also be tagged [extract].

Recommendation #6.2
The standard set of metadata elements recommended by the Group is based on a widely accepted standard known as the Dublin (Ohio) Core Metadata element set [extract].

The report of the Interdepartmental Group on web publication was in fulfilment of the commitment given in paragraph 42 of the Government Action Plan on the Information Society in Ireland;

Service-wide guidelines and practices will be adopted regarding content format and presentation etc. for websites, and an Inter-departmental group will be established to deal with these issues.

A Metadata Working Group was set up to examine the issue of metadata, followed by the appointment of a Metadata Project Co-ordinator charged with examining the various standards for cataloguing and describing information on the Internet, the requirements of the Irish Public Service, and with recommending and documenting a standard meeting those requirements.

As part of the process, a consultation paper was made available inviting comments and contributions. As a result of the investigations and recommendations of the Metadata Project Co-ordinator, and the feedback from the consultative process, the Metadata Working Group agreed the proposed standard, to be known as the Irish Public Service Metadata Standard (IPSMS).