Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 422: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans for the IT services that are based in the Irish Prison Service headquarters in Longford; if it will remain in Longford or if it will be recentralised back to Dublin and absorbed into his Department. [30358/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Department has agreed a broad Information and Communications Technology (ICT) consolidation strategy in the context of the Government's commitment under the public service reform programme to the development of shared services. There are also substantial developments around Cloud Computing with a Government strategy due to be published shortly.

The detailed implementation of the Department's ICT strategy will begin shortly. Prison specific systems will continue to be delivered from consolidated infrastructures and will, thanks to extensive and well developed networks linking the agencies of the Department and other public service Agencies, be geographically dispersed. As the detailed working out of the consolidation programme proceeds, it will probably identify some functions now carried out in Longford but which may be carried out from Dublin, some from Dublin which may be carried out from Longford, and some which are currently carried out both in Dublin and Longford which may move to central Government supplied shared services.