Ruairí Quinn
Question:298 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Finance the number of times the year 2000 national moni toring committee meets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8249/99]
Written Answers. - Year 2000 Monitoring Committee.
In 1997, the Government established an Interdepartmental Year 2000 Monitoring Committee to oversee the achievement of year 2000 compliance for IT systems and other office equipment and plant in the Civil Service. This committee is made up of four private sector representatives and eight civil servants at principal officer level. The chair and secretariat are provided by my Department.
The committee levies status updates on each Department/office; seeks self-assessments of year 2000 programmes from chairpersons of departmental Y2K monitoring committees; and interviews Y2K programme managers on their work programmes from time to time. Based on this process, the committee reports every two months to Government on the progress being achieved. The committee has reported on six occasions to date. It is preparing its seventh report for submission to Government in early-mid April 1999.
Since December 1997, the committee has met in full on 15 occasions. In addition, a number of committee subgroups have met on six occasions. The committee will continue to monitor Departments/offices under March 2000 at the earliest to ensure a smooth transition through the millennium changeover period and through the leap year date. It will continue to meet as necessary during this time.