Written answers
Wednesday, 28 September 2005
Department of Finance
Information Society Initiative
9:00 pm
Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 463: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of projects developed under the information society initiative in 2004, including those intended to go live in 2004; the funding allocated to each project and the amounts drawn down for each project in 2004; the information society projects intended to be developed in 2005; the date when they are due to go live; the funding allocated for each project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24303/05]
Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Overall Government policy on the information society was initially set out in the report Implementing the Information Society in Ireland: An Action Plan published by the Department of the Taoiseach in January 1999. A new action plan entitled New Connections was approved by Government in March 2002 covering the next three-year period 2003-05.
In response to the first action plan, my Department established a special dedicated funding mechanism in 2000, the information society fund, designed to support the implementation of e-Government and e-business flagship projects identified in the action plan and to encourage Departments and bodies under their aegis, to respond to the information society agenda. Since 2001, a portion of the fund is devolved to departmental Votes and the remainder is held as a central fund under my Department's Vote. The management of and accountability for devolved funding is the responsibility of the relevant Department.
For 2004, an overall amount of €60.027 million was made available under the fund, of which €52.696 million was devolved to 11 departmental Votes and the balance of €7.331 million resided as a central fund. Projects supported through the central fund in 2004 include those in the following table. Amounts shown are rounded to nearest €1,000.
| 2004 | ||||
| Project Title | Project Description | Department | Allocation | Funding Utilised |
| â'¬ | â'¬ | |||
| Animal import notification scheme | Automated system to process passports. | Department of Agriculture and Food | 107,000 | 44,000 |
| CAP project | Electronic declaration system for CAP exports. | Department of Agriculture and Food-Revenue Commissioners | 500,000 | 0 |
| IT strategic implementation plan | Supporting the implementation of the CSO's e-public service strategy. | Central Statistics Office | 1,000,000 | 556,000 |
| ePol.net | Design, build and support for development of the ePol-NET knowledge management. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources | 71,000 | 0 |
| Knowledge management | Implementation tools to facilitate interoperability across the Department's information systems which will support better decision making and enhance service to the Department's customers. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources | 268,000 | 268,000 |
| NetSecure system | National network security awareness campaign providing basic information on network security issues and focussed on the needs of citizens and SMEs. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources | 73,000 | 58,000 |
| Systems hardware acquisition | Purchasing hardware for Marine Institute. | Marine Institute | 21,000 | 20,000 |
| Community and voluntary sector needs analysis | Analysis of requirements in the community and voluntary sector and provision of services in the sector. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — LGCSB | 107,000 | 107,000 |
| Mobhaile project | Citizens and communities information facility. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — LGCSB | 1,330,000 | 1,295,000 |
| Web hosting | Provision of hosting facilities for over 200 Government websites. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — LGCSB | 1,175,000 | 1,175,000 |
| Virtual private network, VPN | Support technology research and operation of Government VPN. | Department of Finance | 1,252,000 | 1,127,000 |
| Government search engine | Update of facilities. | Department of Finance | 80,000 | 49,000 |
| e-Government policy preparation | Development of policy on | Department of Finance | 170,000 | 36,000 |
| Invision e-Cabinet project | IT solution to provide cabinet papers electronically. | Department of Finance | 121,000 | 121,000 |
| Harmful use of the internet | Research into the harmful use of the internet and promotion of relevant discussion and publicity. | Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform | 127,000 | 127,000 |
| Digital mapping | Digitising maps. | Land Registry | 100,000 | 63,000 |
| Client records data quality programme | Improving identity data completeness and quality on the central records system, CRS, in advance of developing the public service identity, PSI, services. | Department of Social and Family Affairs | 200,000 | 169,000 |
| NCPP | To provide an interactive portal to the workplace of the future for the National Centre for Partnership and Performance. | Department of the Taoiseach | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| Island of ingenuity: a strategic vision for the creative economic growth of Ireland | A strategic vision for the creative economic growth of Ireland. | Department of the Taoiseach | 20,000 | 7,000 |
| e-Government MSc programme | Seminars relating to the e-Government masters degree programme developed and run jointly by the University of Ulster and the Letterkenny Institute of Technology. | Department of the Taoiseach | 5,000 | 5,000 |
For 2005, an overall amount of €43.984 million was made available under the fund, of which €34.984 million was devolved to 11 departmental votes and the balance of €9 million resides as a central fund. Projects supported through the central fund in 2005 include those in the following table.
| 2005 | ||||
| Project Title | Project Description | Department | Allocation | Date due to go live |
| â'¬ | ||||
| Grangegorman community network project | Design, build and evaluation of a pilot e-community structure. | Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs | 400,000 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Digital community project | To provide state of the art computer technology including technical support, software, training and advice to residents of flat complexes in Dublin's inner city. | Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs | 100,000 | Target date is December 2005 |
| National security day | Funding for national security day | Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs | 15,000 | Completed |
| Dublin employment pact | Equipping citizens in six target areas in Dublin with the ICT skills necessary for the new information society | Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs | 300,000 | Target date is December 2005 |
| Marine data exchange and query service | The development of marine data exchange and service for public funded bodies. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources | 315,000 | Target date is December 2005 |
| Corporate vessel register | To improve and support the Department's management and administration of vessel related activities. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources | 244,000 | Target date is December 2005 |
| Coastal zone administration system | To develop internet services to assist in the management and administration of coastal activities including aquaculture and dumping at sea. | Department of Communications, Marine and Natural resources | 261,000 | Target date is October 2005 |
| Dublin inner city schools computerisation project | To provide access, opportunity and training in ICT across Dublin inner city disadvantaged schools. | Department of Education and Science | 137,000 | In operation |
| Irish spatial data infrastructure, ISDI, technical aspect research | Preparation of a report setting out best practice standards and architecture for an ISDI portal and setting out recommendations for inclusion into the draft ISDI policy. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government | 115,000 | November 2005 |
| An Bord Pleanala online facility | Internet-accessible database providing information on cases before the board and comprehensive information on all decided cases. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government | 11,000 | Target date is November 2005 |
| Small areas project | Algorithm and procedure for generating homogeneous small areas within electoral divisions for the future reporting of statistical data. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government | 37,000 | Target date is end 2005 |
| Small areas project data collection pilot | To devise and develop mechanisms that will facilitate and promote the use of a definitive set of small areas throughout the public service for the creation of public sector boundaries and for statistical data collection and analysis. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government | 25,000 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Web hosting | Provision of hosting facilities for over 200 Government websites. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — LGCSB | 1,055,000 | In operation |
| Mobhaile project | Citizens and communities information facility. | Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — LGCSB | 930,000 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Virtual private network | Support technology research and operation of Government VPN. | Department of Finance | 1,170,000 | In operation |
| HRMS application managed service provider | New and common computerised human resource system for the Civil Service. | Department of Finance | 2,051,000 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Internet advisory project | Measures to alleviate the illegal and harmful use of the Internet. | Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform | 130,000 | Get with it campaign launched September 2005 |
| e-conveyancing project | Initial work to determine a future e-conveyancing operational model and the steps required to implement the model from a legal, procedural and technical perspective. | Law Reform Commission | 250,000 | Process model is due to be completed by end 2005 |
| Client records data quality programme | To improve data completeness and quality on the central records system in advance of launch of PSI services. | Departmental of Social and Family Affairs | 133,100 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Standard authentication framework environ-ment, SAFE, prog-ramme, initial phase | To investigate and develop a standards based framework for the public service card or token using the PPS number as an unique number. | Department of Social and Family Affairs | 171,000 | Target date is end of 2005 |
| Island of ingenuity | A strategic vision for the creative economic growth of Ireland. | Department of the Taoiseach | 13,000 | Completed |
| ICT expo | ICT expo funding grant. | Department of the Taoiseach | 21,000 | Completed |
| Government online services publicity | To highlight the benefits of ICT and raise public awareness of how Internet technology can be exploited. | Department of the Taoiseach | 121,000 | Target date is November-December 2005 |
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