Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport

Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Polycarp Anyanwu:

We analysed the cost implication of the subscriptions to the commercial off-the-shelf. There is a fraction of the support cost than we would have had if we had continued with the system on that development. It is not as though if we went live with the VTP the way it is now, it would be support free. No. We already had a contract for supports because most of it is bespoke. If it is bespoke we still need the people who did the design to come and look at it if there are issues and provide support so it was not free support like that. We analysed it. Going commercial off-the-shelf you pay a subscription and then the vendor makes sure there are no bugs in the system and it is support is provided if you pay for your subscription. That was a better alternative for us.