James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

105. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans for the development of a shared public sector or Government data centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32337/21]

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

112. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the shared data services centre outlined in the recovery and resilience plan will be publicly run and not contracted out to a private provider. [31888/21]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My question relates to a commitment in the recently published national resilience and recovery plan to provide a Government data centre. Will the Minister elaborate on plans for that? Is it to be a physical data centre, a system to provide a single view of the citizen or both? What exactly is it to consist of and how exactly will it work?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 105 and 112 together.

I thank Deputies Lawless and Mairéad Farrell for their questions. It is proposed to develop a new Government data centre. This will be a purpose-built facility on State land and will be operated and managed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on behalf of the State. The new Government data centre will be developed at the Government’s Backweston laboratory campus in Celbridge, County Kildare, with which Deputy Lawless will be familiar. This campus currently accommodates various facilities for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the State laboratory.

This project is part of the Government’s ICT strategy, which is focused on creating ICT shared services to support integration across the wider public service in order to drive efficiency, standardisation, consolidation, reduction in duplication and cost control. The data centre will provide the foundation and platform on which our digital reforms and transformations will be built. It will also help facilitate a more environmentally-efficient use of technology across Government.

The objective of the Government data centre is to deliver high-quality data centre facilities which are fit for purpose and are capable of meeting the Government’s requirements now and in the future. In doing so, it will support and enable the Civil Service Renewal 2030 strategy, the Public Service Data Strategy 2019-2031 and the Government’s 2021 digital strategy and thereby provide a much better experience of Government services for the people of Ireland.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. His response was very interesting. I am delighted to hear the centre is to be located in Backweston in my constituency of Kildare North. I am aware of the forensic science laboratory and other State facilities already located there. This will complement the facilities at that location. I know that centre is operating well and it is good to see it growing with this new establishment.

I have a couple of questions on the centre itself. Data centres can be very useful and I welcome the fact that the State is progressing this project and centralising its view of citizens' data. That will present synergies and benefits for all public services. They can be very energy hungry. Is there a renewable energy plan to accompany this particular centre? With regard to the skills and talent required, we can be thankful that there is no shortage in north Kildare. In the context of employment opportunities, however, particular skill sets are required for any technology project. Such skill sets will be required for any data mining that might follow on from this project and to operate this single view of the citizen. There are also synergies with our Defence Forces, some of whose members may have been trained in those areas. Perhaps we could begin to build a centre of excellence for these skills in Ireland. In light of the recent cyberattack on the HSE, we must also be alert to cybersecurity concerns. Will building talent and bringing talent in from the private sector or the Defence Forces be an aspect of this project? Will there be a renewable energy component to driving the centre on?

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is much merit in creating a shared Government data services centre. I have been looking at the area of public procurement and data collection, analysis and review in this area needs to be improved. A shared data centre could help to improve the interoperability of public administrative databases and could help cut down on data entry and the collection of duplicate data. As part of the drive towards digitisation, efforts are being made to cut down on paper records as these are seen as less efficient. However, it is equally inefficient to have multiple people across multiple Departments collecting the same, or similar, information. I welcome the data centre on that basis but I do, however, have concerns as to how it will operate. I apologise; while I did listen to the Minister's response, for the sake of absolute clarity, will he confirm that the centre will be State-run and not run by a private provider?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies very much. By way of further background, this facility is initially designed to accommodate 600 racks. The project is initially intended to replace four of the State's most essential data centres, which are operated by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and An Garda Síochána, with one purpose-built data centre facility owned and operated by the Government. It is intended to then make the facility available to organisations across the public service. With regard to the timeline, it is intended for construction procurement by the Office of Public Works to take place in the third and fourth quarters of this year, for the tender to be awarded and contracts signed in the fourth quarter and for construction to commence in the first quarter of next year. It is hoped that the facility will be completed and commissioned by the end of 2023.

With regard to the environmental impacts of this data centre in particular, it has been designed to be at least twice as efficient as most existing data centre facilities. This represents a large saving of power in the new purpose-built facility. In conjunction with the construction of the data centre, a sustainable energy project is being pursued on the site by the Office of Public Works. This may potentially involve photovoltaic solutions. In addition, hardware rationalisation and upgrading physical to virtual programmes will be a key part of the migration project from existing server rooms to the new Government data centre, which will see both a reduction in overall hardware and the upgrading of hardware to modern energy-efficient models.

I assure Deputy Lawless that the centre will be designed to adhere to industry security standards and will be certified to the International Organization for Standardization security standard, ISO 27001. It is my understanding that the data centre will be operated and run by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but I will get that confirmed for Deputy Mairéad Farrell.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for responding to my comments.

I am familiar with the campus at Backweston and have followed its development. Indeed, I was there for the launch of Forensic Science Ireland and the turning of the sod a couple of years ago. It is great site and it is well located. There is a valuable skill set and talent pool in north Kildare. I thank the Minister for the continued investment in the centre.

There are synergies there. As a member of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, I have had opportunity to engage with the Defence Forces. The cybersecurity skill set is one in respect of which we can develop synergies within the State. The Defence Forces may have a role in conjunction with the private sector. We could create talent which would then lend itself to projects such as these. That would be the State helping itself in terms of developing synergies along the way. That is something that could be considered. Is it part of the plans in this regard in the long term?

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If the data centre is to be State-run, that is very good news. Deputy Lawless mentioned that the data centres based here which are owned by private companies can use significant amounts of energy. We know there has been a sharp rise in the number of such centres operating here. In fact, a report prepared by the data hosting industry confirmed that the number of operational data centres in the State increased by 25% in the past year. The data centre industry currently consumes 11% of the energy generated on the grid and that is forecast to rise to almost one third by the end of the decade. Not only does it consume significant amounts of electricity, it consumes large amounts of water. For example, the average data centre uses an estimated 500,000 l of water per day. However, a particular data centre in Dublin reported it could use up to 4.5 million l of water per day. At a time when our offshore islands are experiencing water rationing, that is mind-boggling. The Minister has given assurances regarding the environmental aspect of this project. I ask him to be clear that the facilities will be run on renewable energy and will conserve as much water as possible.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is good to hear that the centre will be built to the highest standards but has there been a review of cyber-vulnerability in the context of consolidating in one centre? It seems to involve exposure to greater risk.

What is the view of the Minister in respect of centres other than the top four he mentioned? For example, the State has been exposed in terms of a lack of e-health capability which could have been invaluable in the course of the pandemic. Is there an element where health will soon be integrated into a similar phase of ambition?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. As I stated, the data centre is designed to be at least twice as efficient as most existing data centre facilities. That is an important point to underline. In conjunction with that, a sustainable energy project is being pursued by the Office of Public Works, OPW, on the site. I very much welcome that and will ensure it proceeds as part of the plan. The OPW has signed a contract with the ESB for the additional power connectivity required to ensure power reliability for the new data centre on the Backweston site, which is fundamental to the success of the project. There is an interdepartmental steering group in place to oversee the project, with senior officials from the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, the OPW, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Revenue, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and An Garda Síochána. They will consider the synergies and benefits that may be available by using the resources and expertise in the wider State sector.

For the information of Deputy Bruton, the review of the National Cyber Security Centre which, as he is aware, was under way well before the recent ransomware attack, has now been completed and has just been provided to the Minister. Its contents will be taken on board in the final plans for the development of this data centre.