Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The project is more or less on schedule. It has been an enormous project because it affects all Departments and offices. We are now at implementation stage. It is planned to further augment its features and functionality over several more phases this year. Those phases are electronic briefing facilities for Ministers; key features which automatically generate one-page overviews of memos; a facility for Ministers and other users; enhanced administration functionality; and biometric authentication for high level users. These are the phases for 2005.

It is also hoped to broaden the project out into other areas of Government agencies over the next number of years. Having brought it to this stage, as with any project of this size, additional advantages have opened up. All of the current stage of removing the large volume of documents that had to be sent manually to the Cabinet secretariat before each meeting and distribution and such matters are completed. That was a lengthy phase, because it meant getting rid of the generation of significant volumes of paper. Even before a memorandum comes to Cabinet, drafts were submitted manually within Departments. That has gone. The main advantage is that this work is all carried out electronically now. This means a significant saving to Departments in delivery services. More importantly, it means that transmission is instant. Therefore, the long delays with data going backward and forward through the manual system has been removed. The security sections of how documents are handled and who and what groups can gain access to them took a long time. However, that is all finished and we are now down to a position where a system has been devised within Departments and the different areas.

Deputy Kenny asked about the areas in which it is being used. The technology has built-in encryption, fire walls and role profiles which specifically limit access to different people. That is all completed. I assume that like any technology project it will continue to develop for some years. The project should be fairly much completed in 2005 or maybe into 2006 in terms of what was envisaged five or six years ago.

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