Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 16 Dec 1997

Vol. 485 No. 2

Written Answers. - Computer Programmes.

Nora Owen

Question:

68 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the proposals, if any, she has to assist small companies to prepare for the impact of the millennium problem for computers which will be unable to process dates beyond 31 December 1999; and if she will make a statement on recent survey findings that show only 16 per cent of smaller organisations have a millennium programme plan in place compared to 59 per cent of larger organisations. [22625/97]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Miss Harney)

It is a matter for individual businesses and other users of computer systems to assess the implications of the year 2000 for their particular systems and to determine the solution. Where the Government can help is in raising awareness of the issue.

Early in 1997, Forfás prepared a report, on behalf of my Department, which indicated that the level of awareness among technical management was high, although many were not aware of the full scale of the issue, but there was a need to convince senior management of the scale of the problem.

My Department launched an awareness campaign in June which involved the distribution of over 92,000 leaflets to every business address in the country and a further 34,000 leaflets via the trade associations and the chambers of commerce and the county enterprise boards.

As is shown by theNovember 1997 Price Waterhouse 2000 Aware Study of 231 finance directors in Ireland awareness appears to have increased significantly; 71 per cent of respondents said that the year 2000 problem was either serious or fundamental to their organisation, 94 per cent have already started planning, 59 per cent have a formal writtten plan and 69 per cent were very confident about their organisation's ability to comply with the year 2000.

However, that confidence is belied by other disturbing findings that over half of repondents were unable to estimate the total resources required to address the issue and 40 per cent had not considered requesting confirmation of year 2000 compliance from their business partners. My Department is currently examining how it might follow-up on the above-mentioned awareness campaign.