Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The ICT issue is complex and important. It is important in the context of the work that this committee is undertaking, but also much of the discussion in the public domain about the accuracy of information, the importance of data collection and the outdated nature of PULSE and the other IT systems. The way in which the accounts are dealt with it is difficult to see where everything lies in them. There are so many different headings. There is office equipment and external IT, etc. There is training and development and incidental expenses that come up. It is difficult to keep track. Last year the Minister told us that there would be a €330 million capital programme between 2016 and 2021. We hear today it is a €400 million capital programme between 2018 and 2021. I suppose it is beginning to sound a little like the housing strategy where the same moneys are announced and re-announced in subsequent years and dressed up and added to. What I am trying to get to is the amount actually being spent. How much of the €330 million that was allocated for ICT for the years 2016 to 2021 has been spent to date or how much of it is included in the €400 million that the Minister announced this morning for between 2018 and 2021?