Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 51: To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to create a data centre for cloud computing to exploit the potential of cultural archives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36734/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset, I should point out that a great deal of cultural material is already available on-line and accessible by any person through the Internet. Examples of this include the 1901 and 1911 censuses which have been made available by the National Archives at www.census.nationalarchives.ie; the digitisation of church records which have been made available by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport at www.irishgenealogy.ie; a searchable database of approximately 80,000 records of key Irish manuscripts and periodicals made available online at sources.nli.ie by the National Library of Ireland; and a searchable database of artefacts made available by the National Museum at www.museum.ie. There are indeed many more examples from these national cultural institutions and from other institutions that are grant-aided or funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Cloud computing is a relatively new and developing area of information and communications technology, ICT. It is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications, services, and data that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. However, it is still a relatively immature development in that there are considerable issues to be worked out. Examples of these issues include the security of applications and data, most especially in the context of Government data protection obligations; the performance and reliability of the cloud computing platforms and associated networks; the need to avoid vendor lock-in on proprietary platforms which could make access to information and the cost of the service prohibitive or bad value for money; and the fact that commercial and revenue models for Government's needs have not yet been fully developed by the market.

My Department is satisfied that cloud computing is a key component of the future of ICT in the Irish public service. To that end, officials of my Department are actively researching and trialling cloud computing solutions with all of the major ICT vendors in the market and are discussing the issues I mentioned at the highest levels in those companies. I should point out that the issues I have highlighted are of equal concern to colleagues in other EU member states and in US state governments. However, we believe that over time they will be resolved, and that we will be migrating to cloud computing platforms that are appropriate for the public service on an incremental basis in the coming years, an approach we believe will be common with other Governments.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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I am sure the Minister is aware that a commitment was given in the Croke Park agreement that cloud technology solutions would be looked at immediately and that progress would be made before the end of this year. It would appear that at the recent public service IT seminar people were asking questions but no one was there to answer them. I do not think the Department of Finance was represented.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A question please.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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There seems to be an overall lack of direction. I am sure the Minister is aware that there is immense interest throughout the world in our cultural history and heritage, much of which is in cold storage. Is there a possibility that cloud technology could be advanced to reveal this to the world and provide access to it? It has major implications for our future.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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We are developing such a strategy. It is important to emphasise that it is not necessary to use cloud computing to make cultural material available on-line. A great deal of cultural material is available for free on the Internet already. This is a very important point. We have all seen the huge interest in the census material from the turn of the 20th century and it is perfectly accessible on-line. Cloud computing is very important; it is a new way of providing computing facilities in which computing becomes a service. My Department is involved in the transforming public service agenda in developing this. The UK Government has announced a high-level strategy; it intends to use cloud computing and to develop a Government cloud for that purpose called the "G-Cloud". However, the UK Government has not announced how it intends to do this or the timeframe for doing so. Its plans are aspirational. My Department has already put in place an equivalent to the planned G-Cloud. This is "Government networks", which is a countrywide high-capacity highly resilient infrastructure that allows public bodies to interconnect with each other relatively easily and cheaply. In addition, it facilitates shared access to high bandwidth Internet access and direct access to a wide range of centrally shared systems and services.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In view of the potentially wonderful achievements with cloud computing, and I think Microsoft in Ireland as well as various Departments are heavily involved, given that Anglo Irish Bank is, whether we like it or not, one of the most expensive cultural acquisitions ever made in the history of the State does the development of cloud computing offer an opportunity for the Minister to deal with the civil servants - well, they are civil servants - namely, the former employees of Anglo Irish Bank who seem to have the encryption codes for accessing data?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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This is not captured in the scope of the question.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Yes, it is.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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No, Deputy please.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Cloud computing is all about capturing and sharing data. I went to a seminar on it.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That, no doubt, will require a separate question.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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The Minister identified cultural tourism as a major means of job creation in this country. My understanding is that unless we have this form of technology in our centres of excellence we will not be able to capitalise fully on the vast resources that are in storage at present and that need to be digitised and revealed or exposed to the world. Will the Minister ensure we have some form of direction because it seems we do not have any at present? This is the feedback I am getting. Irrespective of what the Minister states about the UK Government, it is looking at a policy and a pathway whereas we do not seem to have one here. We have always been recognised as a country at the cutting edge of technology. Unless we embrace this technology we will fall further behind.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Examples of this already in operation include the e-Cabinet and the e-Estimates systems, the centralised HR management system for the Civil Service, the Financial Shared Services Centre operated by the Department of Justice and Law Reform in Killarney and the centralised provision of death notifications. Considerable progress has already been made in this area. However, let us be clear about this type of technology and what the precise ambition is, because it is an ambition shared by many Governments worldwide, including those of the US and UK, as well as ourselves. It is to provide a form of technology that is far more secure in terms of the protection of the information embodied in it. This is not of necessary application in the cultural tourism area, although I agree with the Deputy that cultural tourism should be promoted in every possible available outlet.

The other point to be made about this particular technology is that the provision of cloud computing will be a major shift in the provision of computing services and that is the future of ICT in the Irish public service. However, it is an immature market at present with many issues to be developed.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We are making very poor progress today I have to say.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Is oth liom é sin.