Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank the Chairman and committee for facilitating consideration of this technical Supplementary Estimate.

Vote 18 provides for the salaries and expenses of running the shared services projects, including Peoplepoint, payroll and financial management. Those are three that we have set out. 2013 was the first year of the Vote and, following Government approval, certain projects have transitioned from design stage into implementation.

As part of the implementation phase, the Office of Government Chief Information Officer entered negotiations with suppliers for the provision of licences for the IT equipment. The result of these negotiations is that certain licences have been purchased on a once-off basis rather than annual payments. These licence costs are deemed to be of a capital nature and the costs will be depreciated over the useful life of the equipment in the appropriations accounts of the Department.

The approval of the committee is sought for this technical supplement to reclassify current budget into capital. It is important to note that no additional budget is sought and the Vote will return a saving to the Exchequer at the end of the year. For the information of the committee, we expect the saving to about €4 million.