Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 196: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the financial cost of the roll out of the management information framework system across all Government Departments since 2000 to date in 2007; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34075/07]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 208: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the estimate of the money saved to the Exchequer in 2007 by the use of the management information framework system; the way this saving was made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34305/07]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 209: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if the management information framework system has been fully rolled out in his Department; the use being made of performance indicators, the costing framework and management reports provided by this system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34320/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 196, 208 and 209 together.

The Management Information Framework (MIF) project covered all central Government Departments and Offices — numbering 33 in all. Based on their reports to my Department, the total costs of the MIF roll-out was €59.3 million up to end-2006, by which time installation was completed, compared with the €60 million estimate submitted to the Government in 2003. Most of the expenditure was for replacement of outdated systems with modern, computerised financial management systems: these include, for example, a shared services project which now covers the Justice Group of Votes (the Gardaí, the Prison Service, the Courts Service, the Property Registration Authority and the parent Department) as well as the Vote of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

My Department has fully rolled-out its financial management system in support of the MIF project and already has an extensive range of performance indicators in its Statement of Strategy, on which it reports annually. A more focussed set of performance indicators has been developed for use in its Annual Output Statement from 2007 onwards. My Department will be reporting on these early in 2008 when presenting to Dáil Éireann its Annual Output Statement for 2008, which will include information about the achievement of the 2007 targets. Costing is undertaken at both subhead and strategic priority level. The Department's finances are systematically monitored, subhead by subhead, from reports produced by the system. The system also produces reports for use by individual business unit managers and for use in response to ad hoc queries, parliamentary questions, etc.

Like all modern systems, the MIF requires higher levels of staff skills and periodic upgrades, etc., than the old systems. As against that, the MIF, with its modern financial management systems, has facilitated streamlining of financial processes, faster processing of accounts and greatly-increased use of electronic financial transfers. For example, the number of payable orders processed by the Paymaster General's Office in my Department for Government Departments and Offices has fallen from 4.2 million in 2001 to an estimated one million in 2007 — part of this is due to the reduction in the number of annual payments made to farmers under the CAP and the greater use of electronic fund transfers by farmers. In addition, of course, the old financial management systems would have had to have been replaced in any event. The Comptroller and Auditor General is conducting a value-for-money review of the MIF and will, presumably, take all of these factors into account in arriving at his conclusions.