Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a description of the configuration of the Government's data VPN in the Kildare Street and Government Buildings area; the capacity of the Oireachtas data connection to the VPN; the capacity of the VPN data connection to the Internet; his plans to enhance the data capacity of the Government VPN; his further plans to provide additional data capacity and resilience for the VPN connection to and from the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19352/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has installed a fibre-based campus network operating at 1 Gbps in the Government Buildings complex, providing connectivity to the Departments of the Taoiseach; Arts, Sport and Tourism; Finance; Agriculture and Food; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the Office of the Attorney General; the Office of the Revenue Commissioners; the National Museum; the National Library; and the Houses of the Oireachtas. This campus network is, in turn, connected diversely to the Government VPN at 100 Mbps. These diverse connections are shared by all interconnecting bodies resulting in bandwidth availability that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive. The Government VPN has a number of diverse and resilient connections to the Internet, each operating at 100 Mbps. Another such connection is being installed at present and should be available in the near future. Capacity upgrades to Internet connectivity are planned and implemented on the basis of continuous usage monitoring.

The Houses of the Oireachtas are connected to the campus network in Government Buildings using fibre capable of operating at 1 Gbps. The capacity of this connection is a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas and is not determined by my Department. However, the current capacity is greater than need and is therefore unlikely to require upgrading in the forseeable future. Resilience of connectivity to the campus network in the Government Buildings complex and on to the Government VPN is also a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas. However, my staff are currently working with staff from the ICT function in the Oireachtas to plan and implement such resilience.