John Bruton
Question:3 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach the expenditure to date by his Department in tackling the year 2000 problem.
Ceisteanna–Questions. - Year 2000 Compliance Programme.
Ruairí Quinn
Question:4 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the progress of the working group within his Department to examine and assess problems for information systems with regard to the year 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.
In July 1999 my Department declared that its year 2000 compliance programme was complete. My Department has prepared contingency plans to ensure business continuity in the event of year 2000 problems arising. These plans have been approved by management and are currently undergoing external audit.
A substantial proportion of the time of staff in the IT division of my Department has been devoted to the Y2K issue over the past two years. It is not feasible to estimate the cost of this separately from other work of the division. Other expenditure to date identified as relating to tackling the year 2000 problem has been £15,500 approximately. Most of this represents the cost of upgrading hardware and software.
What is the approximate cost of skills that have had to be bought into the Department over and above its own in-house skills concerning this issue?
Most of the work was done by our own IT unit. Changing some of the equipment – I have mentioned the alarm system before – was outside our expertise. However, the vast amount of the work was done by the internal IT unit.
In addition to the work being done to change the systems and make them year 2000 compliant, have they all been tested?
They have. I think the work is complete on that. Most of that was done during the summer. I could not be certain that every last piece of work has been done, but certainly all the essential work was done in the early part of the summer.
I know that the question refers specifically to the Taoiseach's Department but is the Taoiseach in a position to say now, or would he accept a question subsequently, whether the same information or the same question can be posed to all other Departments? I think the target date was originally July. Are we now in a position in October to be able to state that all Departments and related sub-agencies and agencies are in fact Y2K compliant? Will the Taoiseach indicate, if the information is available to him, whether that is the position? If not, what additional steps, above those that have been taken, will need to be taken to ensure that we are Y2K compliant?
The Deputy should put down a question to the Minister for Finance on that matter. However, to be helpful, I know at this stage that the co-ordinating group has monitored most of the Departments. There are still a few areas they are concerned with but practically all the line Departments and most of the agencies have completed their work. Some of them are uncompleted and will remain so until November, which is a matter of concern because it is getting late. There are also a few in the security area that are creating some concern but by and large most of the work has been completed. The Department of Finance is co-ordinating this and has just presented its ninth report which indicates that, expect in a few areas, most of the difficulties have been overcome.
Is it the Government's intention to indicate a kind of Y2K all-clear, in so far as anybody can offer such an observation? Is there a deadline against which all Departments are working, including the agencies associated with the various Departments, so that we can, in so far as it can be done, signal that all the systems deemed to be vulnerable have been checked and tested, and that, therefore, we can minimise the risk? The Taoiseach may not be aware of it, but many individual households are now receiving letters from their insurance companies to the effect that home insurance cover no longer applies to Y2K related exposure. Therefore, any level of certainty the Government can offer the marketplace would no doubt minimise this kind of risk.
Earlier I mentioned the question of alarms which is one of the areas that is most vulnerable to the embedded chips. As regards the insurers, it would have been helpful it all that had been highlighted for people a long way back. If the alarm system does not operate and, thus, one's household insurance is not valid, it seems a bit unfair to me. I have highlighted this matter publicly on a number of occasions at Y2K conferences and I am doing so again now. The co-ordination committee will be working until the end of this month and it has identified the areas that will not be finished in that time. Most of the important and essential systems have been finished, but there are some in the security area that have not been, as I have already mentioned. I will leave that matter to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. As regards the Deputy's question about putting it forward, we decided that all Government offices, their associated agencies and public bodies operating under their aegis, would commence publishing information on their year 2000 programmes on the Internet websites. They are doing so and those that have not got websites are using the Department of the Taoiseach's. So, they are highlighting their state of preparedness.
Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister of State with responsibility for insurance to contact all insurance companies to ensure that timely information on the extent of cover for Y2K related problems is issued to all households? Second, will he ask whether they would consider jointly financing with the Government a leaflet to be issued to every household in regard to the matters they need to take in hand to ensure they are Y2K compliant as of 1 January next year? Is the Taoiseach aware that the Government of New Zealand has issued such a communication to every household there telling them exactly what they have to do and what they should check for Y2K compliance? Would he not agree that something like that should be done here also?
I will raise that matter with the Minister concerned. During the summer I asked all the financial institutions to run a similar campaign for small and medium sized industries. I acknowledge that they did that quite successfully during the summer.
What about issuing a leaflet to every household?
I will consider that.