Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 206: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons currently employed in the information technology section of the prisons headquarters in Clondalkin; the grades they hold; if consultants are employed in this section; if so, the number of same and the length of time they have been employed; the cost of the consultants; the length of time it is intended to employ them; the duties on which each person employed as a consultant or otherwise is engaged; the amount spent in the past five years on human resource related IT systems which were never implemented; and the reason for same. [42447/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am advised that the Irish Prison Service (IPS) currently has 31 people in the Information Technology Directorate in its headquarters in Clondalkin. The grades are 1 Assistant Principal Officer, 7 Higher Executive Officers, 3 Executive Officers and 1 Clerical Officer. In addition there are currently 19 IT contract staff working in the IT Section on foot of a contract which was awarded to Rescon Ltd in April, 2006 following an EU tender. The annual cost of the contract is €1,685,000. The contract duration is for two years with the option to extend the contract for an additional year. The contractors provide ongoing and essential IT services across both the system and infrastructure sides of Information Communications Technology within the Prison Service.

As part of the Civil Service wide HR Management System implementation, the Irish Prison Service decided to approve the development and implementation of a Human Resource Management System (PeopleSoft HRMS) in 2003. As the Deputy will be aware a decision was taken to suspend the usage of the system because of the difficulty in matching many of the business and operational requirements of the Prison Service at that time. The IPS contribution to the developments of the suite of programmes was approximately €557,000 which includes the purchase cost, implementation consultancy requirements, licences and necessary changes to the core system.

In the interim, significant upgrading and customisation of the PeopleSoft HRMS and the IPS network infrastructure and architecture have taken place and €60,787 has been spent on consultancy fees related to this development need. During this time the IPS have developed an updated set of HR business needs and have been re-evaluating its options in respect of a Human Resources Information System. The IPS is currently preparing to re-engage with Human Resources Information Systems providers with a view to progressing the implementation of a revised Human Resources System building on the work done on the original system and the updated set of HR business needs now to hand.