Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 20 Apr 1999

Vol. 503 No. 3

Written Answers. - Computer Programmes.

Ruairí Quinn

Ceist:

66 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Finance the number of times the Government's national monitoring committee on the year 2000 problem has met in 1998 and to date in 1999; the dates of each meeting; the number of meetings scheduled for the remainder of 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8206/99]

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Ceist:

92 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Finance if he will give a report on work done or in progress to deal with the year 2000 problem; the amount of the £40 million budget allocation for capital spending on this matter committed or disbursed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10207/99]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 66 and 92 together.

I can assure the Deputy that the Government is treating the year 2000 problem with the utmost urgency and priority and has been taking steps since 1996 to ensure that information technology systems and other office equipment and plant will not be affected. Each Government Department and office is individually responsible for ensuring that it, and the public bodies under its aegis, achieves year 2000 compliance in good time. Based on a detailed circular and advice note issued by my Department, all Departments / offices have put comprehensive year 2000 programmes in place. In addition, monitoring and reporting processes have been put in place in each Department and office to ensure that these programmes are properly managed and progressed. The Government has set an absolute deadline of 31 July 1999 for achieving compliance on business-critical year 2000 projects.

In 1997, the Government established an Interdepartmental Year 2000 Monitoring Committee

to oversee the achievement of year 2000 compliance for IT systems and other office equipment and plant in the Civil Service. This committee is chaired by my Department and is made up of four private sector representatives and eight civil servants at principal officer level. My Department also provides a full time secretariat to the committee.

Since December 1997, the committee has met in full on 15 occasions. In addition, subgroups of the committee have met on eight occasions. The following table sets out the dates of these meetings. The committee has scheduled its next meeting for 6 May 1999. Although the Committee has not scheduled its meetings for the remainder of 1999, it expects to average one meeting per month. It will continue to monitor Departments / offices until March 2000 at the earliest to ensure a smooth transition through the millennium changeover period and through the leap year date.

As regards the contingency sum of £40 million, the position is as set out in my reply on 23 March

to a similar parliamentary question from Deputy Quinn – viz. no moneys have yet been expended from the contingency sum nor is it expected that any such expenditure will arise until later in the year when it will be easier to judge the extent to which existing allocations may need to be supplemented. For similar reasons, no such spending has been committed and I would not expect that such commitments would arise until later in the year.

Dates of Meetings of the Interdepartmental Year 2000 Monitoring Committee

Full Committee	Committee Subgroup Meetings
Wednesday, 3 December 1997	Thursday, 12 February 1998
Wednesday, 14 January 1998	Wednesday, 18 February 1998
Tuesday, 3 February 1998	Wednesday, 28 October 1998
Wednesday, 25 March 1998	Monday, 2 November 1998
Wednesday, 29 April 1998	Monday, 16 November 1998
Tuesday, 19 May 1998	Thursday, 19 November 1998
Wednesday, 27 May 1998	Thursday, 18 February 1998
Tuesday, 9 June 1998	Monday, 1 March 1999
Tuesday, 7 July 1998
Wednesday, 16 September 1998
Wednesday, 7 October 1998
Monday, 30 November 1998
Wednesday, 13 January 1999
Tuesday, 2 February 1999
Monday, 22 March 1999