Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)

Does Senator O'Brien mean that includes me? I beg to differ on that. I believe the Government should switch its e-mail and document services from expensive outdated servers to some sort of cloud-based system. This proposal would save approximately €10 million over five years, which incidentally is roughly the amount that would be saved by the abolition of the Seanad. We should give serious consideration to this proposal.

I contacted Deputy Tom Hayes, the chairman of the Joint Administration Committee, and I was told the committee would look at it. Cloud computing would mean that we would save on software licences and energy cost overheads. It would give us greater flexibility to create and edit documents outside the office, while also allowing us to set up e-mails in a more flexible way. We are quite curtailed and Members who have an iPhone or BlackBerry will realise that it is subject to problems all the time. Cloud computing would make it easier for us. Denmark has already done this and said it had saved 70% of its Government's IT budget. We need to embrace this.