Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank of Ireland is planning to outsource the running of its IT systems and their operation to HP; and if so, if there is a precedent for central banks outsourcing functions, particularly IT to private companies; the countries involved and the periods for which they have used outsourcing. [13709/13]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank of Ireland is about to outsource its IT operations; if so, the protocols that are in place to ensure that commercially sensitive information will be protected in such an event; his views on whether it is appropriate that any such outsourcing is made to a company that is in fact regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. [13710/13]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank of Ireland is about to outsource its IT operations; if so, the amount it currently costs to run the IT operations; the cost of the outsourcing; and the savings that will be made if such outsourcing is to take place. [13711/13]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank of Ireland is about to outsource its IT operations; if so, the tender procedure the bank has undertaken to contract a private IT operator and the costs associated with the tendering process. [13712/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 203, 205, 207 and 208 together.

I am informed by the Central Bank that it has entered into a contract with HP to provide the physical data centre environment to host the bank’s IT systems and to manage the technical infrastructure aspects of these systems. HP will also provide hosting facilities at a backup data centre for the purposes of business continuity. Both of these data centres are located in Dublin.

The Central Bank will remain in control and manage all sensitive systems and data. This new data centre will negate the requirement for the bank to build two new Data Centre environments to replace existing facilities which are at ‘end of life’. It will also enable supplier consolidation for a range of services currently being provided by a diverse group of up to 17 external suppliers. There will be no ‘outsourcing’ of Central Bank staff arising from the contract with HP.

As the existing facilities are unsustainable, a direct comparison of costs does not provide a valid like for like comparison. A robust business case, in which a number of alternatives were investigated thoroughly and compared across a number of criteria including cost, was produced and was approved by the Central Bank Commission. The main cost savings relate to the very significant capital costs avoided in relation to the alternative need to build two new data centres. The costs agreed with the provider are commercially sensitive and are not available for release. However the approach taken by the Bank was considerably advantageous on cost when compared to the alternatives examined.

The Bank selected HP as a result of an open tendering process in compliance with the strict guidelines laid down by the EU public procurement process. The cost of the tendering process for this service is estimated at €150,000 including the costs of legal advice and assistance with the complex contract.

The commercial agreement between the parties contains adequately robust provisions regarding the security and confidentiality of Central Bank information. These provisions are designed to safeguard commercially sensitive information and comply with the Banks internal standards and those laid down by the European Central Bank.

The service provider is Hewlett Packard Ireland Limited. This entity is not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. The commercial terms agreed between the parties impose strict restrictions on access to data.

I am not in a position to outline the details of any specific outsourcing arrangements that may exist in other Central Banks as they are confidential to those institutions. We are aware that some other Central Banks and Regulators have engaged external specialist private companies to provide elements of the services which will be provided under this contract. It is to be expected that other Central Banks will evaluate external Data Centre options when they come to an ‘end of life’ scenario with their existing facilities.