SERVICES
Developing a Digital Roadmap for Monaghan
Monaghan County Council seeking the views of citizens and business people
At present, Monaghan County Council is working to develop a Digital Strategy for County Monaghan. This strategy will set out the actions needed to develop Monaghan as an area of digital expertise at local and county level and ultimately to make Monaghan a more attractive and efficient place for conducting business, especially digital business.
In the coming days, digital surveys will available on the Monaghan County Council website and through social media forums seeking your views on what needs to be done to help develop County Monaghan as a digital county.
Earlier in the year, Market Dynamics Ltd. from Kilkenny were appointed as consultants for this project, with John Gilsenan leading this research. As a native of Monaghan, John is already familiar with many aspects of life in Monaghan at first hand and can identify many of the barriers to digital development within the county.
Ultimately the objective is to see the development of higher levels of digital skills within the county, leading to increased employment in areas requiring digital expertise and skills in Information Technology. John Gilsenan from Market Dynamics has already been engaging with many of the key stakeholders, conducting meetings and interviews with many people in the business community. In the coming weeks, it is intended to gather the views of a greater number of people with online surveys looking for input from citizens, business people and the voluntary sector.
These three different surveys are being made available digitally and the citizen survey will also be available to complete in paper format through our public libraries. These questionnaires will also be distributed to community and voluntary groups through the Public Participation Network (PPN), seeking to take on board the views of all voluntary organisations and identify their specific needs at local level. It is expected that further public consultations will also take place in the coming months for groups and individuals in central locations within the county.
The Digital Strategy will focus on how Monaghan can develop more skills in STEM subjects and Information Technology. This will be a multi-agency document with actions and objectives defined at local and national level for a number of the key stakeholders within the economic, education, local government and voluntary sectors. The digital strategy is being completed under the auspices of Monaghan County Council Broadband Officer, John McArdle.
It is intended that this document will build on research completed by Indecon economic consultants in 2018 at national level on behalf of Department of Rural and Community Development which culminated in a Digital Readiness Assessment for each local authority. This identified some of the challenges faced within Monaghan from a digital perspective. It is anticipated that the development of this digital strategy will identify some of the key steps needed to develop digital directions within the county and to act as a driver towards achieving these.
To access the surveys see:
Monaghan Digital Strategy – Citizen Questionnaire
Monaghan Digital Strategy – Business Questionnaire
Monaghan Digital Strategy – Voluntary Organisation Questionnaire