Central Bank of Ireland IT Operations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Questions (18, 19, 20)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

18. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if any conflicts of interest were declared in the tendering process for the outsourcing of the Central Bank of Ireland's IT system. [42995/13]

Pearse Doherty

Question:

19. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to any issues regarding the fact that a company (details supplied) through its management of the Central Bank of Ireland's IT system may have access to data of a rival, who operate a commercial bank here. [42996/13]

Pearse Doherty

Question:

20. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if, a company, (details supplied) are subject to the provisions of the Patriot Act which could require them to provide data from the Central Bank of Ireland's IT system to the US Government. [42997/13]

Written answers

Minister for Finance

I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 to 20, inclusive, together.

The Central Bank entered into a contract with Hewlett Packard Ireland Ltd. to provide the physical data centre environment to host the Central Bank’s IT systems and to manage the technical infrastructure aspects of these systems. Hewlett Packard Ireland Ltd. will also provide hosting facilities at a backup data centre for the purposes of business continuity. Both of these data centres are located in Dublin. The Central Bank will remain in control and manage all sensitive systems and data. I have been informed by the Central Bank that Hewlett Packard Ireland Ltd. is an Irish company.

I have also been informed by the Central Bank that Hewlett Packard Ireland Ltd. does not have access to any of the Central Bank’s business applications. The security of the technical aspects of the systems are achieved through a combination of physical and logical protections, procedural and process protections, security features including encryption where necessary and on-going monitoring and reporting features. The steps taken comply with the Central Bank’s internal security policies and those of the ECB and are underpinned by the contractual and legal arrangements with HP.

The Central Bank followed robust public procurement tendering procedures before awarding this contract. The Central Bank selected Hewlett Packard Ireland Ltd. as a result of an open tendering process in compliance with strict guidelines laid down by the EU public procurement process. I have been informed by the Central Bank that no conflicts of interest were declared by the successful tenderer in the tendering process.