Dan Boyle
Ceist:93 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Finance the reason the Government has chosen not to make use of open source computer software. [13427/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 23 June 2004
Ceisteanna (93)
Freagraí scríofa
It is not true to say that the Government has chosen not to make use of open source computer software. Indeed, the public service has recognised the importance of open source software, OSS, and the potential it offers for some considerable time. Consequently, OSS is used quite widely and wherever it makes operational and economic sense in Departments and offices in areas such as operating systems, interoperability middleware, mail routing, firewalls, domain name services, directory services, editing, content management, databases, web serving, application serving, web scripting, caching and proxies.
The public sector operates a procurement policy that facilitates open competition, best value for money and best technological fit to requirements in keeping with public procurement law. Within that approach, different products are evaluated on their merits, including openness in terms of future procurement and where possible, avoidance of lock-in to a particular supplier. Accordingly, an open view is taken which in practice tends to follow standards emerging from the market. These open standards are critically important to facilitate interconnection of computer systems and exchange of data and information across these systems. Consequently, with respect to the costs of software, consideration is given to the total cost of ownership, which in addition to the licensing element, also includes the issues and costs associated with development and customisation, deployment, warranties and maintenance, performance, security and reliability, management and support, upgrades, training and skills development, and adherence to and support of open standards. In keeping with this, my Department is engaged in ongoing OSS research to enable it to judge the value of new opportunities as they arise in this area.