Foreword – Chief Executive

Tipperary County Council is focused on enhancing the digital economy within our county. We believe that, by promoting the digital agenda through a dynamic workforce and enhanced infrastructure, County Tipperary can secure sustainable economic growth and prosperity into the future.

High-speed broadband is already bringing benefits to parts of our county. We need to spread these benefits across the entire county. Within the context of the National Broadband Plan, it is important to clarify how the local authority, communities and businesses can position ourselves to maximise the benefits from existing and future rollout of high-speed broadband across the county.

Working with our partners, this five year Digital Strategy for County Tipperary sets out the objectives to enhance the digital economy in Tipperary and the actions necessary to achieve those objectives. The Strategy prioritises four key themes; Infrastructure, Enterprise, our Citizens and Training & Education.

Underpinning the development of the strategy was a major programme of survey research and consultation with stakeholders across the county.

The digital sector of the economy is growing fast and the opportunities that it is creating in its dynamic and rapid development is already resulting in a number of changing models of social and business interaction. The pace of change is accelerating and this Digital Strategy seeks to position us to seize the opportunities presented by this digital transition.

Joe MacGrath

Chief Executive

Cathaoirleach Address

Digital technologies are fundamentally shifting the economic and societal landscape across Ireland, Europe and the world. Whilst technology has been part of our lives for many decades, recent years have seen a vast increase in the availability of world-leading digital products and services to people everywhere.

This has had a big impact on people’s lives in their homes and workplaces and opened their eyes to new opportunities in a very real way. Digital technologies provide the means not just to automate mundane, day-to-day tasks but to help us communicate with others more effectively.

We have a duty to do all in our power to ensure that all of our citizens have access to these technologies so they too can derive benefit from them, not just to enhance their productive capacity but also to improve their lifestyle experience.

This strategy and its implementation will deliver new possibilities in how we work, live, learn and enjoy our communities. I extend a thank you to those involved in its development and I am confident that it will provide many new opportunities across our county for all.

Mattie Ryan,

Cathaoirleach