Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 161: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of money which could be saved by directing all Government Departments, agencies and State bodies to utilise skype, or other similar voice internet protocol technology, to the exclusion of traditional fixed telephony; if this has been examined; the usage to date of such technology; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40516/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has examined Skype and equivalent services, and agrees that it offers potential to reduce telephony costs. However, Skype is just one provider of public IP-based telephony services and there are numerous other ways in which IP-based telephony can be provided. Under procurement law, and to ensure maximum competition, my Department and all public bodies must give equal opportunity to other providers. Additionally, the use of public IP-based telephony services introduces considerable security risks for corporate networks. Consequently, to ensure the protection of their networks and the data of customers of public bodies, it is imperative that public bodies remain in direct control of their IP-based telephony services.

Accordingly, my Department has worked with public bodies over the past number of years to implement secure IP-based telephony services – these use the same underlying IP-based technology and bypass techniques of public IP-based telephony systems such as Skype. This approach has resulted in considerable cost reductions for telephony services.

In addition, my Department has put in place a range of telephony procurement frameworks and central procurement standards for mobile voice and data, fixed voice and Voice over IP (VoIP), and fixed data communications. These frameworks and central standards have ensured that all telephony providers have equal access to procurement opportunities in the public service. The Government decided some time ago that these frameworks and standards must be used by all civil and public service bodies. As a result, there is now intense competition for public service telephony business resulting in considerable cost reductions.

The combination of these procurement frameworks and central standards, and the IP-based technology approaches being used, have resulted in very considerable cost reductions for telephony use in the public service, ranging from 20% to 70%, dependent on the nature of the organisation and the type of calls it makes.