A new £45 million Information Technology system to be used by the Government was unveiled in Portlaoise today by Minister for Agriculture Mr Walsh.
The first phase of the project will focus on the Department of Agriculture at a cost of £10 million.
Mr Walsh said sheep tagging and registration applications will be the first aspects of the system to be delivered over the Internet.
He said the new system will help the Department deliver a more efficient service in an e-Government environment.
"This investment will mean the installation of a state-of-the-art PC for all staff with a standard software configuration, including access to all Department applications, e-mail, intranet and Internet access," he said.
The Department will also be the first Government Department to act as an accredited testing centre for the European Computor Driver Licence course.