Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Apr 1999

Vol. 503 No. 4

Written Answers. - Computer Programmes.

David Stanton

Question:

87 Mr. Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the agencies under the auspices on her Department which have declared themselves to be year 2000 compliant; the agencies, if any, yet to make such a declaration; when she expects such a declaration, if any, to be made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10406/99]

Minister for State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. Treacy):

The only Government offices which have declared their year 2000 programmes to be complete are the President's establishment and, more recently, the Office of the Ombudsman.

In the past few weeks, officials from our Department have had discussions with all agencies falling within this Department's remit in relation to progress being made on their year 2000 programmes. These discussions were wide-ranging and focused on the Government imposed deadline of 31 July 1999 for achieving compliance on all fatal and critical systems. Based on these discussions, I expect that declarations of compliance will be forthcoming from the majority of agencies in time to meet the deadline of 31 July 1999.

However, consequent on the formation of Enterprise Ireland in the middle of 1998 – which represented the merging of Forbairt, An Bord Tráchtála and the services to business function of FÁS – the new agency re-evaluated it's IT strategy in line with the revised business strategy. This involved a decision to re-design the grants administration system as the existing one is a legacy system written in old programming language and would have involved significant resources to render it compliant. This decision has impacted also on IDA Ireland which shares the grants administration system with Enterprise Ireland.

The timescale envisaged for the implementation of the new grants administration system for both agencies is the autumn of this year. Our Department will monitor closely developments in this regard.