Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 120: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the cost to date of the Lorenzo system; the amount consultants have been paid to introduce this system to date; if consultants have been retained to work on this system; when it is expected to be in place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35438/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I have been informed by the HSE that iSOFT is a major international supplier of IT systems to health care. It has a substantial portfolio of products and it has a product development programme known as Lorenzo. I am informed that under the terms of the HSE's contract with iSOFT, the company has already delivered its current version of the software and the implementation of this suite is under way for sites that must urgently replace their existing systems. However, the contract also provides for the HSE to have access to the new version of the system produced under the Lorenzo programme and I understand that work will begin on its implementation in St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny in January 2006 with an expected go live date in early 2007.

The HSE has informed me that the cost to date of the iSOFT project is €5.6 million. Of this, €4.3 million has been paid to iSOFT for software licences, implementation services and support. The remainder of the cost was principally for computer hardware and the internal implementation costs in the HSE areas and that none of this cost is in respect of consultants employed to introduce or to assist in introducing the system in 2005. The HSE has further advised that around €60,000 of this cost refers to consultancy and legal fees associated with the final stages of the procurement and contract process, including the cost of a financial due diligence of iSOFT in advance of entering into the contract.

The HSE has informed me that iSOFT personnel are providing the necessary technical services associated with deployment of their system and there are no other consultants involved. The cost of these services in 2005 is included in the above figure. Similarly the cost of these services is included in the overall ten year contract price of €56 million. The HSE's proposal is to deploy a standard version of the iSOFT system across all its hospitals over the next five years and to develop and enhance this over the full ten year term of the contract.