Episode Details

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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