Written answers

Thursday, 7 May 2009

Department of Agriculture and Food

Computerisation Programme

5:00 pm

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the company or organisation responsible for the design of the REPS 4 on-line application system; the fees paid by him for this service; the measures, in view of the widespread dissatisfaction with the system which crashed again over the weekend of 17, 18 and 19 April 2009, he proposes to take to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18293/09]

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The eREPS system is an on-line facility for the preparation of REPS plans and is accessible to all planners. The contract to carry out the developments of the eREPS system was entered into by Teagasc with software company Bizmaps. The system, which was funded by the Department, is hosted by Bizmaps and is managed on the Department's behalf by Teagasc. Bizmaps continues to be responsible for maintaining the system and for introducing new functionalities as requested by the Department. A total of €1,494,413 has been paid to Bizmaps from 2006 to date for this service; €929,119 was paid directly to Bizmaps by the Department and €565,293 to Teagasc in respect of the costs incurred.

I am advised that although there was a brief period on the 18 April 2009 when the system was unavailable due to a hardware fault, the issue was dealt with promptly and enhanced monitoring has been introduced by Bizmaps to avoid such disruption in future.

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