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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 5 Oct 2000

Vol. 523 No. 3

Written Answers. - PULSE Project.

Question:

40 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will outline the difficulties that have occurred in the installation and use of the PULSE computer system to date; the reasons for the very substantial cost overrun relating to the system; and the way in which the final estimated cost has compared to the original costing. [20893/00]

Ruairí Quinn

Question:

60 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps being taken to deal with reported problems in the PULSE computer system which have prevented gardaí in Dublin and other urban areas from inputting all reported crimes; his view on the reliability of Garda statistics in the light of these problems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20176/00]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 40 and 60 together.

The PULSE project has been ongoing for four years and will be fully implemented in 2001. PULSE has resulted in very significant changes for Garda operations. An Garda Síochána now have a state of the art system which provides major benefits to policing. Streamlined information flows facilitate improved criminal intelligence and paperwork has been greatly reduced.

I understand that initial teething difficulties have now all been ironed out and that systems are performing to target.

I have been advised by the Garda Commissioner that there are no PULSE problems preventing gardaí in Dublin and other urban areas from inputting crime reports on the system and that there are no problems which would be likely to impact on the reliability of Garda crime statistics. PULSE data entry has been fully decentralised from Dublin since July 2000 when data entry training targets for decentralised data entry were reached.

Regarding the cost of the project, the position is that the contracted cost agreed at the commencement of the project in August 1996 was approximately £36 million. This later rose to approximately £43.5 million because of the need for additional scope and because of a shortfall in the numbers of Garda staff who could be made available to work on the project. It is estimated that the final cost of the project will be something over £46 million.

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