Mr. Karl O'Leary:

I will address the transformation in the public sector. On average, €480 million is spent on ICT in the public sector per year. A minimum of €80 million in savings is being sought. This will primarily be delivered by adopting new work practices. Cloud is an enabler in that regard. We have three pillars, one of which is public service delivery engagement. Mobile telephone applications being used to access documents was mentioned, but they could also be used to enable citizens to engage with public services. For example, people could use them to find out where health centres are, what time they are open, to book appointments, etc. All of this can be done through the cloud. A school project running out of St. James's Hospital to map health providers' locations is being delivered on the cloud.

A second pillar is workplace modernisation, that is, changing how people work. In Northern Ireland, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust modernised by adopting a more unified communications approach. A member mentioned the greater use of mobile devices, but the ability to use video conference calls and examine patient data has saved the trust approximately 30% of its facility costs, those being, heat and power. It did this by consolidating data and making them more available remotely without needing to get into a car and visit someone.

Deputy Kyne mentioned the amount of data that is stored by local authorities but not shared or leveraged when delivering a service. For example, some UK councils work with their areas' health trusts in determining where to make preventative health investments.

I had the chance to listen to an earlier session on the fodder crisis. In terms of predictive analytics, "big data" is always mentioned. I will try to make the concept real for the committee. If we had the capacity for each farmer to notify his or her stock of fodder decreasing at an accelerated rate, those data could be mapped and people could figure out how to put in place local initiatives to solve the crisis. This is cloud. It is not just a matter of working differently. Rather, it is concerned with service delivery and engagement, modernising the workplace and providing better insights and accountability.

We would be more than happy to go into the detail of multiple examples. We are working with the public sector to deliver in this regard. The recent ECOFIN meeting was an example, in that it was delivered through cloud technology. We are working closely with the HSE to understand what services we can deliver. We are working hospital by hospital as well as centrally. This type of work takes time, but people need to be confident in the cloud. They will only be confident after they have seen the public sector embracing it. Hence, the classification of data. People must be confident that they will receive e-mails and documents from the cloud. We look to politicians as leaders, who must demonstrate their confidence in the cloud.