Vol. 501 No. 6
317 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the individual responsible for drawing up the tendering documents for the National Genealogical Project; the group to which the contract was awarded in 1989; the amount the completed contract was worth; and if she will make a statement on the status of the project. [5018/99]
I am assuming that the Deputy is referring to the contract for the provision of a computer system for the Irish Genealogical Project, IGP, formerly known as the National Genealogical Project.
Responsibility for the IGP was transferred from the Department of the Taoiseach to my Department in November 1997. The papers transferred from the Department of the Taoiseach indicate that in 1989 a number of companies were asked to submit a tender, based on a functional specification prepared by Digital Equipment Ireland Ltd, for the hardware-software costs associated with the provision of a computer system for the IGP and to quote separately for the cost of implementation. The tenders were assessed by the National Microelectronics Applications Centre Ltd. in March 1990 and a contract valued at £1,426,827, to be funded by the International Fund for Ireland, was awarded to Digital Equipment Ireland Ltd. later in 1990. During the period in question the IGP was managed by a management committee chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and including representatives of the Irish Family History Co-Operative; FÁS, Bord Fáilte and SFADCo.
Work on the building of the IGP database is ongoing. I am at present considering a comprehensive review of the IGP which was completed earlier this year by my Department.
