What actually happens when a country decides to digitise itself?
Not the theory. Not the strategy decks. The real story.
Over 23 years, Ireland’s public sector has gone from:
• Paper forms, post and phone calls
• To online transactions people trust
• To fully integrated, citizen-first services
• And now… cautiously stepping into AI
This episode is a rare step back — a straight, honest look at what changed, what worked, and what didn’t.
You’ll hear:
• Why early “digital” projects were little more than brochure websites
• The moment citizens finally trusted online government services
• The internal battles — fiefdoms, silos and systems that wouldn’t talk to each other
• How collaboration became the biggest shift of all
• Why “citizen-first” wasn’t always the mindset — and how that changed
• The truth about AI in government — less hype, more caution
And crucially — what all of that means for what comes next.
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