Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2021
177. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount the Companies Registration Office has paid to suppliers for its new information technology platform introduced on 16 December 2020; the number of complaints the office has received regarding the introduction of the new platform; and the nature of those complaints. [16465/21]
View answerThe Registrar of Companies is a statutory role and the Registrar has administrative independence in the exercise of this function.
I am informed by the Registrar that the amount paid to suppliers for the CRO digital Transformation project is €2,930,100, including VAT.
I understand that the CRO receives a large volume of contacts and queries through a central helpline and also directly to individual business units. These queries to the central helpline cover topics including general or routine matters, issues with filing deadlines and extensions granted, late filing fees, waiting times and backlogs in relation to the helpline and a variety of issues relating to the new system while queries to the individual business units relate to issues handled by those particular units.
The CRO does not separately categorise IT related issues and is not in a position to provide specific details on these. However, I understand that IT related issues raised include those relating to processing speed and the potential knock-on effect on the then filing deadline of 26th February 2021; changes in the sequence of actions when filing; access issues to the new system and resetting of passwords; removal of some previous features that were no longer necessary; changes to functionality regarding the company watch list.
In relation to formal complaints, dealt with through the CRO complaint handling process, I understand that the number of such complaints regarding the introduction of the new system is 27 and that these primarily relate to issues concerning user unfamiliarity with the new system. As an example, some of the complaints relate to functions which are now “context sensitive” in the new system and only available in particular circumstances, while others relate to previous functions that were not considered necessary and are no longer available.
I am assured by the Registrar that the aforementioned issues relating to the IT system have been addressed. A small number of issues, not impacting on filing, remain and are being resolved on a prioritised basis.
