Ireland: losingyourjob.ie gets a Taoiseach award

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen (the Head of Government of Ireland) gave a Public Service Excellence Award to the Citizens Information Board (CIB) for the losingyourjob.ie website.

A microsite available since March 2009, losingyourjob.ie was produced in a six-week period as a response to rapidly rising unemployment in Ireland. The website aims to inform people about their rights, entitlements and options during a period of unemployment, covering cross-sectoral information areas such as claiming social security benefits, requesting a tax refund, getting help with rent or mortgage payments, going back to education, looking for a new job and starting a business. It also provides information for migrant workers returning to EU or non-EU countries and for Irish citizens looking to relocate inside and outside the European Union.

Homepage of losingyourjob.ie

Very simple and easy to browse, losingyourjob.ie is a great example of how an administration can quickly set up a Public Service tool providing easy-to-access and focused information in response to a particular situation.

losingyourjob.ie was also a finalist at the European eGovernment Awards in 2009, and the CIB is familiar with that type of award as the website citizensinformation.ie won a World Summit Award in the e-Government category in 2007.

Further information:

• article on the award on citizensinformationboard.ie
• losingyourjob.ie
• the case of losingyourjob.ie for the European eGovernment Awards
• citizensinformation.ie