Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 July 2014
589. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department has renegotiated external IT consultancy contracts and costs since March 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29166/14]
View answerMy Department awards a contract for ICT security consultancy services on an ongoing two year basis. The service consists of quarterly independent assessments of my Department’s ICT security measures and a biannual independent security review of my Department's ICT infrastructure. This is required for EU accreditation purposes in order to maintain my Department’s status as the EU-accredited paying agency in Ireland. In addition, services for independent internet-facing application testing are provided for in the contract, where required.
Following an open EU public tendering procedure held in April 2013, a contract for this work was awarded in June 2013. On this occasion it was awarded to a different company than on the previous occasion that this work was tendered. Following a review of the initial 12 month period of the contract, my Department and this company agreed to an extension of the contract for a further period of 12 months. On the expiry of this service in 2015, it is envisaged that my Department will run a new open EU tender competition for this ICT consultancy work.
My Department is also heavily reliant on high quality Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to both assist with the effective and efficient administration of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) based single payment and agri-environmental schemes and also in carrying out our animal health and farm inspection obligations. Following an open public tendering procedure held in 2012, my Department awarded a contract to Compass Informatics to carry out a review of the operation of the Department’s GIS systems and to produce a technical report on how to ensure that these systems continue to serve my Department well into the future. The final report was completed as scheduled and a number of the recommendations are currently being implemented.
In addition, my Department has a number of contracts in place for ICT infrastructure technical support and for contract programming resources, which have been retendered at various points since March 2011, using open EU tendering procedures.
