Ciarán Cuffe
Question:191 Mr. Cuffe asked the Taoiseach the total cost of projects announced or promised by him between 1 January 2002 and 17 May 2002. [15299/03]
Written Answers. - Departmental Projects.
In my role as head of Government, I have announced projects funded by other Departments. In respect of my Department, the eCabinet project was announced in February 2002. This project is funded through the Department of the Taoiseach from the Government's information society fund.
The overall estimated cost of the project at that time – as articulated in the feasibility study conducted by consultants PWC and published by my Department in February 2002 – amounted to a total of €6.76 million. This cost combines estimated centralised costs of €3.4 million, estimated departmental costs of €1.18 million, plus potential implementation management costs of €1 million and VAT amounted in total to approximately €6.7 million. The project is progressing well. Current cost projections would indicate actual delivery costs for the initiative in the region of €3.5 million to €4 million. This, if realised, would represent delivery of this flagship eGovernment initiative very substantially below original estimates. A more precise analysis and cost comparison will be made later this year when more of the actual implementation cost figures will be available.