Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will remember, one of the things I did last year was set up a group consisting of representatives from the Department of Justice and Equality, An Garda Síochána and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, as well as a nominee with experience across government of looking at IT systems. It was a priority project in terms of reform, one in which the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, had a particular interest. He felt it would be to the advantage of the ICT section in An Garda Síochána if we put together such a group to analyse the needs of An Garda Síochána and come up with a plan. The capital budget we have allocated is based on that plan, to which there are different elements. As the Deputy rightly states, it follows the recommendations made in the Garda Inspectorate's report. Rosters are still done with pen and pencil. There are significant ICT needs in An Garda Síochána, one of the major ones identified by the Garda Inspectorate being that the PULSE system not just be able to record crime but also deal with information on the investigation of crimes in an ongoing way. That is what we are prioritising for the rest of the year. What An Garda Síochána has done - it has put significant time and effort into this - is develop an ICT plan and obtain tenders. When we had the money available, it was able to state it had a number of projects which it could fast track before the end of year and begin to put in place. The money is being utilised to support and develop the PULSE system and to provide new systems such as e-vetting which is capable of processing up to 500,000 applications annually. A figure of €7 million in additional expenditure is accounted for by the three new phases of what is called the major investigation management system, to which I have referred. That means that all across the country the Garda will be able to state what exactly is happening in the investigation of a crime and that other members of the force will have access to the information. Obviously, this will make for much greater efficiency. The cost of the three new phases will be €5.9 million, while the cost of the additional hardware will be €1.1 million. The total is reflected in the Supplementary Estimate. There is also the larger plan to meet ICT needs, the total cost of which over the lifetime of the capital expenditure plan will be €330 million. There is a significant amount of work to be done on it. It will aid decisions on where gardai should be based and the investigation of crime, as well as create greater efficiencies within the Garda family.