Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 190: To ask the Taoiseach the number of contracts awarded by him to outside consultants in respect of each year since 2000; if he will identify the recipient of the contract in each case; the details of the work covered by the contract; the original estimate of the cost of the contract; the final amount paid in respect of each such contract; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28349/05]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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Details of all contracts awarded to outside consultants by my Department in respect of each year since 2000 are listed in table 1. Details in respect of bodies under the aegis of my Department are listed in table 2.

Prior to commencement of the e-Cabinet project, PwC was engaged as consultant to advise on its feasibility. Details are given in the table above. Since then, the main expenditure on eCabinet has been in respect of development rather than consultancy. The software developers are the InVision Research Corporation. The original estimate for the project set out in the PwC feasibility study in 2001 was up to €6.45 million at 2001 values. The fixed price contract negotiated with InVision is for a total amount of €952,000. The final cost of the project, which will also include security, hardware, software licences, support and maintenance, etc. is expected to be around €5 million. That includes the cost of a small number of additional service providers engaged to build the infrastructure and to provide security for the system.