Better Public Services - Ireland a World Leader in Digital Government and Open Data

Ireland a World Leader in Digital Government and Open Data for Better Public Services

Ireland has achieved international recognition for how it uses digital technology and open data to improve public services and support a thriving economy. Two new international reports show that Ireland remains one of the leading countries in the EU and OECD in these areas.

Digitalisation and the reuse of open data have a real and positive impact on the everyday lives of people in Ireland. They help:

• deliver faster, simpler public services,
• reduce paperwork and duplication,
• make Government more transparent,
• support better decision‑making, and
• boost the economy by helping businesses create new products and services.

Having strong digital systems also means Ireland is better prepared for future technologies, including AI.

Ireland has once again been ranked 5th overall out of 36 countries in the EU’s 2025 Open Data Maturity Assessment, and 4th among EU Member States, with a score of 96%.This assessment looks at how well countries make public sector information openly available and easy to reuse — for example, transport data, environmental data, health statistics, or local authority information. This kind of data powers innovation, supports research, and helps businesses build new solutions.

A separate report from the OECD also highlights Ireland’s progress. Ireland ranked 7th out of 36 countries in the 2025 Digital Government Index, which measures how well countries are transforming public services using digital technology. Ireland scored strongly in areas such as designing digital services from the start (“digital by design”), building shared platforms and tools that all public bodies can use, involving users in shaping services, and making government data open, useful and reusable.

These results show that Ireland’s long‑term investment in digital transformation is working. Digital tools, better use of data, and modern IT systems help create:

• more efficient public services,
• fairer and more transparent decision‑making,
• greater public trust, and
• a stronger, more innovative economy.

This progress supports Ireland’s wider national plans for digitalisation at scale in the recently published Digital Ireland – the National Digital & AI Strategy and Digital Public Services Plan 2030.