Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

By putting in place better IT systems we save money in the long term by avoiding disallowances and fines. Ireland is receiving fewer disallowances than any other country within the EU because we have IT systems that work. Other countries have IT systems that have let them down. We are spending when we need to spend to make sure we maintain an IT structure that functions as it should for the distribution of huge sums of money to 130,000 farmers. We are trying to keep costs down as best we can, but we will invest when we need to, such as in the case of the new mapping system and a new IT system for the new CAP and CFP. If that is not done, we would have to outsource the job, which would be more expensive and would mean having far less control if something goes wrong. Looking at the countries that have outsourced their IT systems, there are significant difficulties, in many cases, when things go wrong, because they are essentially stuck with the one provider. We have made a policy decision to have an in-house capacity in terms of IT management and delivery, but we have to bring in outsiders to upskill that team and help to rewrite code and redesign systems when such is needed. That is what is covered under this particular expenditure.