Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:645. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the amount spent by the HSE and his Department per month on the Covid tracker app in each of the past three years, in tabular form. [11418/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 7 March 2023
Ceisteanna (645)
Freagraí scríofa
The cost of the Covid Tracker app was approximately €800k with ongoing support and development costs of approximately €20k per month during the subsequent 6 months. If a breakdown in tabular form is required the department will need to refer this PQ to the HSE for that detail.
The cost of the Irish tracker app compares with an estimated cost of €20m for the German Covid tracker app, as reported by the media at the time.
Covid tracker apps are significantly more complex than a typical app, as it relies on using advanced engineering and bluetooth technology to estimate distances from others with mobile phones.
The Irish app was also used as part of the communications strategy to keep people informed about the spread of the disease, the number of positive cases and deaths recorded (by area) and the number of vaccinations administered. The app was subsequently upgraded to act as a digital wallet for people to store their digital Covid certificate on their phone.
The Irish Covid app was extremely popular with the public - with over 1 million downloads in the first 36 hours after launch. In latter times it was more popular as a convenient way of storing the digital Covid certificates. In line with the data privacy impact assessment, the app will be decommissioned when no longer required. As the EU regulatory requirement for member states to issue EU digital Covid certificates is scheduled to lapse this summer, its likely the app will be decommissioned at that time also.