The Minister with special responsibility for the Information Society, Mr Tom Kitt, TD, has described the rate at which people are dealing with Government online as "phenomenal."
The Minister made his comments to coincide with the launch today of the 3 rdIrish eGovernment Awards, the benchmark recognising excellence in Irish eGovernment.
He said: "The speed at which people are getting used to dealing with government online is actually phenomenal."
He recommended that recognition be given to those in the wider public sector for their work increasing online access.: "These people are revolutionising public access to vital government services."
The Minister added, "The figures speak for themselves. For example, 53 per cent of the self-employed, a total of 157,000 people, made returns online to the Revenue Commissioners just this month.
"In the area of motor tax, up to the end of October, over 370,000 transactions had taken place on the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government motor tax website (www.motortax.ie), involving the payment of over €81 million.
"Since its launch in 2000, Revenue Online Services (ROS) now handles over 53 per cent of Income Tax returns online with 75 per cent of all businesses now represented on ROS either directly or through their agent acting on their behalf.
"Customers have access to their own Revenue account using the Customer Information Services and last week there were over 40,000 on-line enquiries in one day."