Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 11 Nov 2003

Vol. 574 No. 1

Written Answers. - Computerisation Programme.

John McGuinness

Ceist:

195 Mr. McGuinness asked the Taoiseach the number of ICT projects or initiatives being undertaken by his Department; the cost of each project; if they are being or have been delivered within budget and on time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26065/03]

The Taoiseach:

There are two ICT projects or initiatives currently being undertaken in my Department, the e-Cabinet initiative and the Government on-line returns extranet.

The e-Cabinet initiative will deploy state-of-the-art technologies in support of the government process across Departments and at the Cabinet table itself. This will facilitate new efficiencies for Departments and Ministers and will be the first system of this kind in the world.

Implementation of e-Cabinet follows the feasibility study commissioned by my Department from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers. That study identified the substantial potential benefits such a system could deliver and gave an indicative estimate of costs of the order of €3.4 million, excluding VAT, for the central element of the project, rising to a figure of the order of €5.58 million, excluding VAT, when taking account of the security infrastructure required, and other costs which might accrue to individual Departments. Current indications are that the project will be delivered within these projected costs.

It is hoped to deploy the initial system in Departments early in 2004, on a phased basis. Deployment has been rescheduled from late 2003 to early 2004, primarily due to having encountered some technical issues associated with the variety of ICT infrastructure and configurations already in use across Departments. This has required intensive focus on resolving these issues with a consequent impact on the scheduled implementation of the e-Cabinet system itself.

My Department is also developing a Government on-line returns extranet. This extranet will be available to all Departments so that they can refer and contribute to schedules of Government events and engagements both at home and abroad. It is planned that this extranet will go live in November of this year. The cost of this project was originally estimated at €21,208. Some additional development work was required and it is now estimated that the costs involved will be approximately €25,000.

It should be added that general work to enhance my Department's ICT network, systems, websites and applications is ongoing.